Dive Brief:
- CMS has proposed adding four services to the list of those that can be provided to Medicare beneficiaries via telehealth.
- CMS is recommending that annual wellness visits, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and "prolonged evaluation and management services" delivered via telehealth be reimbursed as Category 1 services.
- Prolonged evaluation and management services would include "prolonged service in the office or other outpatient setting" requiring direct patient contact beyond usual care, with coding for both the first hour beyond such care, plus each additional 30 minutes.
Dive Insight:
With CMS moving—however tentatively—toward paying for telemedicine services, the whole landscape for telemedicine could begin to change. Historically, telemedicine's growth has been held up by health plans' refusal to pay for such services, but if CMS pays for them, commercial health plans are likely to follow their lead. Obviously, there's still a long way to go before telemedicine becomes a widely-reimbursed service, but this represents progress not only for CMS, but for the healthcare industry as a whole.
The proposed rule also includes changes to RVUs for calendar year 2015 and suggests a process for greater transparency in developing payment rates.