CMS expands telehealth coverage during COVID-19 outbreak

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will temporarily pay clinicians to provide telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries across the US, effective retroactively to March 6, 2020. A range of healthcare providers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers, are now able to offer telehealth services, and beneficiaries can receive telehealth services in any healthcare facility including a physician's office, hospital, nursing home or rural health clinic, as well as from their homes, according to the emergency declaration. Further, patients will now be able to access their doctors using a wider range of communication tools including telephones that have audio and video capabilities, making it easier for beneficiaries and doctors to connect.