The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that for Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries in particular, it has finalized requirements that will increase access to telehealth, expand the types of supplemental benefits available for patients with chronic diseases, provide support for more care options in rural communities, and expand access to patients battling end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Rule Increases Telehealth Benefits
The rule encourages MA plans to increase their telehealth benefits and increase plan options for beneficiaries living in rural areas. CMS is giving MA plans more flexibility to count telehealth providers in certain specialty areas (such as Dermatology, Psychiatry, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Nephrology, Primary Care, Gynecology, Endocrinology and Infectious Diseases) towards meeting CMS network adequacy standards.
CMS hopes that providing flexibility in the proposed rule with respect to telehealth “will encourage plans to enhance their benefits to give beneficiaries access to the latest telehealth technologies and increase plan choices for beneficiaries residing in rural areas.” This move is an extension of CMS’s continued expansion of telehealth flexibility to benefit individuals seeking medical care during this pandemic.
“CMS’s rapid changes to telehealth are a godsend to patients and providers and allows people to be treated in the safety of their home,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “The changes we are making will help make telehealth more widely available in Medicare Advantage and are part of larger efforts to advance telehealth.”
This comes as a new poll found that roughly half of seniors are comfortable using telehealth to get healthcare, and those that do largely say they had a favorable experience.
Among those surveyed, 91% said they had a favorable experience with telehealth, and 78% added they plan to do so again. Another 73% of seniors on Medicare Advantage (MA) still had their healthcare needs addressed either by telehealth or in person, and 27% said they have experienced an interruption with their healthcare.
The survey also found widespread satisfaction (99%) with their Medicare coverage, and another 64% were very satisfied. The results come as providers and insurers question the role telehealth will have in healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic.