Home health agencies rarely furnished services via telehealth early in the COVID-19 public health emergency

Home health agencies rarely furnished services via telehealth early in the COVID-19 public health emergency

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Contributor(s):
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General. Office of Audit Services, issuing body.
Publication:
[Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, September 2023
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
COVID-19
Financial Audit
Government Regulation
Home Care Services -- legislation & jurisprudence
Telemedicine
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
Why OIG Did This Audit. In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded telehealth benefits to limit community spread and keep vulnerable patients in their homes while maintaining access to care. In April 2020, CMS revised Medicare regulations on an interim basis to retroactively allow home health agencies (HHAs) to use telehealth services beginning March 1, 2020. In November 2020, CMS finalized changes to those regulations to permanently allow home health services to be furnished via telehealth. While Medicare makes payments for some types of telehealth services, the final regulations prohibit payments for home health services furnished via telehealth. At the start of our audit, CMS did not require HHAs to report telehealth services on Medicare claims. Therefore, oversight agencies lacked the ability to effectively identify and monitor those services. Our objective was to determine whether home health services furnished via telehealth early in the COVID-19 PHE were provided and billed in accordance with Medicare requirements. How OIG Did This Audit. We selected a stratified random sample of 200 home health claims with beginning service dates from March 1 through December 31, 2020. We reviewed medical records to evaluate compliance with Medicare regulations for providing and billing telehealth services.
Copyright:
The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (13 pages))
NLM Unique ID:
9918750683006676 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918750683006676