Very Brief Blog: OIG Says CMS Telehealth Payments Often Incorrect

There have been many voices calling for better Medicare coverage of telehealth, including some small legislative fixes in the recent spring Fiscal Year Budget Bills. 

However, others have been concerned that telehealth and digital delivery modalities could be subject to incorrect billing or worse.   OIG issues a report on this topic in April 2018, finding a 30% error rate.  Telehealth remains, however, a very tiny fraction of Medicare spending, despite having risen from $61,000 in 2001 to $17M in 2015.

• The OIG report is online here.
• Trade press here.

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With Telehealth spending of $17M in a budget of about $600B, telehealth is about 1/300 of one percent of each Medicare healthcare dollar.