CMS Broadens Telehealth Benefits

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has broadened access to Medicare coverage for telehealth services so that Medicare beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility. These expanded Medicare telehealth benefits can be a lifeline for patients during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Beginning March 6, 2020 and extending through the duration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Medicare has temporarily lifted certain location requirements that would otherwise apply, and indicated that it will reimburse clinicians for telehealth services provided to beneficiaries across the country regardless of setting. For further details on the expansion of telehealth under the 1135 waiver, see CMS’s full press release here.