How Telehealth Expansion Can Support Comprehensive Virtual Care
Telehealth utilization grew rapidly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, enabled by significant changes to regulations, benefits, and payments by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and commercial payers. These flexibilities are now extremely popular among providers, and telehealth will continue to play an enhanced role in the delivery of needed care. However, policy makers will face multiple challenges in sustaining and building on effective telehealth reforms after the public health emergency expires. Payers and providers alike will be concerned about appropriate reimbursement and utilization. Moreover, most of the effective uses of telehealth are not stand-alone substitutes for traditional in-person visits, but part of technology-driven virtual care models that also include remote monitoring, data analytics, care teams, and other innovations that are poorly compensated under fee-for-service payments. Current proposals for telehealth expansion are most likely to extend some flexibilities for a designated time frame, making them unlikely to help organizations invest in creating more comprehensive virtual care models. The authors describe why a more impactful expansion would advance telehealth in conjunction with complementary steps to expand and sustain these care models supported by value-based payment reforms.
