A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is moving forward with a bill that would extend Medicare telehealth provisions for two years after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, but the legislation lacks features to deal with fraud and abuse.
Medicare coverage of telehealth services in the U.S. received a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic, a change that stakeholders have argued should be made permanent. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed to extend coverage of some of these services throughout calendar year 2023 in the draft Medicare physician fee schedule, but some stakeholders are urging Congress to act before the end of the year to make these benefits permanent.
Conventional wisdom has it that recent expansions in coverage of telehealth will never be fully reversed. The addition of artificial intelligence (AI) into telehealth could solve several issues faced by doctors and hospitals. There is some concern, however, that the blending of AI and telehealth will industrialize the practice of medicine, dissuading patients from seeking critically needed care.