The Trump administration has plans to give telehealth a broader role under Medicare through an executive order and it serves as an indication to the Congress to make doctor visits via personal technology a permanent feature of the program.
The order that President Donald Trump spoke about applies to one segment of Medicare recipients - people who live in rural communities.
Administration officials believe that it’s a signal to the Congress that Trump agrees to sign more significant legislation that will permanently open up telehealth as a viable option for all people with Medicare.
This executive order also encourages an experiment through which hospitals in rural communities will be able to receive a more predictable stream of Medicare payments in exchange of delivering improved performance on particular quality measures.
This telehealth measure indicates the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services along with other agencies to collectively work in order to promote access to services in rural communities.
It also aims at permanent expansion of the kind of services that can be provided through telehealth. Officials mentioned the examples that included speech and occupational therapy, emergency room visits, and nurse consultations.
Medicare has expanded coverage of telehealth across the nation, which incorporates the plan to confront the coronavirus pandemic.
But this expansion will come to an end in most places once this public health emergency is over.
The administration does have regulatory authority to expand some services in rural areas permanently. But Congress has to sign off on the broader program that will make telehealth a permanent option for the population living in cities and suburbs.
Medicare statistics reveal that telehealth has been popular. Officials have expanded payment for such services as a measure to keep seniors safe at home. 1.7 million Medicare recipients relied on telehealth in the last week of April. Prior to this pandemic the number was only in thousands.