HHS Reports 63-Fold Increase in Medicare Telehealth Use During Pandemic

According to a new report from US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), massive increases in the use of telehealth helped maintain some health care access during the COVID-19 pandemic with specialists like behavioral health providers seeing the highest telehealth utilization relative to other providers.

The study also shows that Black Medicare beneficiaries were less likely than White beneficiaries to utilize telehealth and that telehealth services were accessed more in urban areas than rural communities.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, various telehealth flexibilities enabled patient access to their providers,” said Acting HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Rebecca Haffajee. “Pre-pandemic telehealth visits for Medicare beneficiaries went from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions, with many utilizing telehealth for the first time. [This] report offers a detailed data analysis on important trends for policymakers.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used emergency waiver authorities enacted by Congress to help beneficiaries maintain some access to care amid stay-at-home orders to reduce COVID-19 related exposure. Existing regulatory authorities were also used to implement policies expanding access to telehealth services during the pandemic.

According to the CMS press release, outside of the public health emergency (PHE), Medicare is generally restricted to payment for telehealth services in certain, mostly rural areas, and when beneficiaries leave their home and go to a clinic, hospital or other type of medical facility for service.

The press release also states that in response to the pandemic, the HHS Office for Civil Rights relaxed enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 privacy requirements for videoconferencing.

Medicare visits conducted through telehealth in 2020 increased 63-fold from approximately 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million per the ASPE report. States with the highest use of telehealth in 2020 included Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, whereas states with the lowest use of telehealth included Tennessee, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, and Wyoming.

“In 2020, telehealth visits comprised a third of total visits to behavioral health specialists, compared to 8 percent of visits to primary care providers and 3 percent of visits to other specialists,” said CMS the press release. “These findings prominently show an increased interest in seeking behavioral health care through telehealth."

Furthermore, CMS recently announced that Medicare will pay for mental health visits furnished by Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers via interactive video-based telehealth, including audio-only telephone calls for the first time outside of the COVID-19 PHE.

CMS also shared that they will be permanently eliminating geographic barriers and allowing patients in their homes to access telehealth services for diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of mental health disorders, including through audio-only communications technology.

More data regarding Medicare telemedicine usage services between March 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021, is to come.

“While utilization of telehealth services increased and improved access to services for many beneficiaries, more research is needed to understand the impact on quality of care and why certain beneficiaries used less telehealth than others,” stated CMS in the press release.

Reference:
New HHS Study Shows 63-Fold Increase in Medicare Telehealth Utilization During the Pandemic. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. December 03, 2021. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/new-hhs-study-shows-63-fold-increase-medicare-telehealth-utilization-during-pandemic