[ORTCCTelehealth-TAO] CMS changes to telemed reimbursement

[Catherine Britain]

>From the CTEL website:

 New Medicare and Medicaid Reimbursement Policy is Expected to Benefit Many
Telemedicine Facilities across the Country
Changes to the current telemedicine Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement
policies will go into effect this month.  The proposed changes would permit
facilities using telemedicine to offer patients more medical services.

Under the current telemedicine Medicare and Medicaid policy, site locations
within the office of a physician or practitioner, critical access hospitals,
rural health clinics, federally qualified health clinics, hospitals, skilled
nursing facilities, community mental health centers, and in-hospital
dialysis centers are covered.  The current policy also covers consultations,
outpatient visits, psychiatric diagnostic interviews, pharmacologic
management, and psychotherapy through telemedicine. However, the policy
proposed will expand on the patient site locations covered, including state
hospitals, schools and locations in rural areas. It will also provide all
Medicare and Medicaid patients with eligibility to use the medical services
previously listed.

Texas Tech Center for Telemedicine is one of many facilities that will
benefit from the new policy.  Director of the center, Debbie Voyles
explained why the new Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement policy will help
her facility, “Tech Health Sciences Center has 20 to 25 physicians involved
in the telemedicine program along with third-year medical students who work
with correctional facility patients as part of their upper level residency
program.” She also said “In the Tech telemedicine program, 85 percent of
telemedicine patients are from correctional facilities in West Texas, while
the remainder needs rural health care.”


-- 
Catherine S. Britain
csbritain at gmail.com
541-910-7366
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