
AMGA Recommends Keeping Telehealth Expansion, Flexibilities After COVID-19 Pandemic
American Medical Group Association (AMGA) is asking CMS to permanently extend the telehealth flexibilities it instituted as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The reality of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has caused social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and self-imposed quarantines after potential interaction with a sick individual, has necessitated widespread use of telemedicine in the United States to extents never seen before. Now that these capabilities have been used, they should not be rolled back, according to the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).
In March, shortly after President Donald Trump
Data on privately insured individuals showed a substantial increase in telehealth use in March 2020, when the pandemic was escalating in the United States.
Now, AMGA is asking CMS to permanently extend the telehealth flexibilities it instituted as a result of COVID-19.
“Patients quickly adapted to receiving care in the comfort and safety of their own homes,” AMGA President and CEO Jerry Penso, MD, MBA,
In a letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, AMGA made recommendations around telehealth and audio-only calls. The organization recommended that CMS continued to allow the use of smartphones for telehealth visits even after the pandemic and the addition of about 80 codes to the Medicare telehealth list. In addition, AMGA recommends CMS allow audio-only calls in order to collect diagnosis information for risk adjustment and care coordination purposes and supports establishing separate payments for audio-only evaluation and management service, as well as payment parity.
For all the recommendations,
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