Aligned with the almost daily changes to the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS announced an expansive lifting of telehealth restrictions on March 17, 2020. These sweeping actions are being taken to limit exposure of our vulnerable Medicare population while allowing them to continue to seek care.
CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, announced these actions during a press conference with President Trump and the COVID-19 Task Force. Telehealth updates released today include:
CMS has formally released a fact sheet which reviews these changes and the applicability to Medicare telehealth visits, virtual check-ins, and E-visits. Most notably, CMS will allow for reimbursement of any telehealth covered code regardless of its relation to Covid-19 diagnosis, screening or treatment.
Applicable codes are as follows:
For more information, please visit:
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/medicare-telemedicine-health-care-provider-fact-sheet
This post was first published March 17, 2020 and was updated July 29, 2020.