On October 14, 2020, CMS added eleven new codes to the list of telehealth services covered by Medicare during to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). Coverage for these new services is effective immediately and will continue, on a temporary basis, for the duration of the PHE. The PHE was recently extended through January 20, 2021. 

CMS also released a new supplement to its State Medicaid and CHIP Telehealth Toolkit, sharing new insights and policy considerations learned by state agencies responding to the PHE. The newly-supplemented Toolkit is intended to assist state agencies in determining what telehealth changes should be made permanent when the PHE ends, what new services should be added to Medicaid telehealth coverage, and what practitioner types should be permitted to deliver services via telehealth under state Medicaid programs. 

These two announcements were made pursuant to the White House’s Executive Order directing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enhance access to telehealth services and create more virtual coverage opportunities. 

New Medicare Telehealth Services

The newly-added codes include cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services and certain neurostimulator analysis and programming services.

With the addition of these codes, 144 codes have been added to the telehealth services list since the start of the PHE. CMS updated its current list of Medicare-covered telehealth services for the PHE. We will continue to monitor the telemedicine and digital health industry for notable changes.