Ferrante Quoted in Report on Medicare Compliance About CMS’ Broadening of Telehealth

Senior Counsel Thomas Ferrante was quoted in the Report on Medicare Compliance article, “CMS Again Broadens Telehealth; Hospital Outpatient Services Don’t Need 95 Modifier,” about how CMS’ interim final rule and new waivers has cleared the way for more delivery of medical services via telehealth during the Covid pandemic and beyond.

“The mindset of CMS is to continue to push telehealth technology,” Ferrante. “The table has been set because of COVID-19.” But it will continue when the public health emergency (PHE) ends.

Ferrante said another big win for telehealth has been revision to coding of remote patient monitoring, which shortened the required duration for physicians to transmit certain vital statistics. CMS also increased reimbursement for telephone-only, which was a boon for many Medicare beneficiaries without smartphones who couldn’t benefit from the vast expansion of telehealth because it required audio and visual components for Medicare coverage, Ferrante said.