State Medicaid and Private Telemedicine Coverage Requirements and Telemedicine Use

Health Services Research: State Medicaid and Private Telemedicine Coverage Requirements and Telemedicine Use

Medicaid coverage of telehealth services between 2013 and 2019 was associated with significant increases in telehealth use and health care access. Medicaid telehealth coverage requirements were linked to a 6.01 percentage-point increase in the use of live video communication. Additionally, states with a Medicaid telehealth coverage requirement throughout the study period had substantially higher rates of telehealth use initially than those that added a policy. Access to covered telemedicine services could alleviate some of these barriers by eliminating the need to travel to see a provider, which may explain in part the larger response to telemedicine coverage among Medicaid enrollees.