PIERRE, S.D. – Telehealth has been key to health care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but some of the flexibilities for this type of care for Medicare patients could expire soon.
A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center detailed how Congress could improve telehealth. Without action from Congress, telehealth provisions for Medicare expire at the end of this year.
Maya Sandalow, senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said telehealth is especially important for rural states like South Dakota.
Sandalow noted Congress looks likely to give a two-year extension to telehealth provisions but she also urged members to consider ways to ensure people can access care.
If the extension happens, the report recommended Congress consider the cost of telehealth versus in-person care, the possibility of tracking telehealth companies’ quality of care and making some policies permanent.
Jonathan Neufeld, director of the Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, said one thing at stake is the ability for certain providers to bill Medicare for their services — physical and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists, for example — who were not able to before the pandemic.
