During the coronavirus pandemic the use of telehealth visits has taken off after Medicare temporarily relaxed restrictions that predated the smartphone era.
program, Medicare covers more than 60 million people, including those age 65 and older, and younger disabled people.
Those who tried telehealth weren't completely sold. About 4 in 5 were concerned the doctor couldn't physically examine them, and 64% worried the quality wasn’t as good. Still, quite a few follow-ups “could be done very efficiently and be just as useful to the physician and myself as going in and seeing them in person," Grady said.
Under the coronavirus public health emergency, the administration temporarily waived Medicare's restrictions so enrollees anywhere could use telemedicine. Patients could connect from home. Making such changes permanent would require legislation from Congress, but there's bipartisan interest. “Policymakers seems to be in a rush to pass legislation, but I think it is worth taking a little more time," said Juliette Cubanski, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “Fraud is one big area that policymakers need to be cognizant of.”Telehealth is so new that “we don’t have at this point a real sense of where the huge risks lie,” said Andrew VanLandingham, a senior lawyer with the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office.
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