OIG Report: Telehealth Was Critical for Providing Services, Nursing Home Visits, to Medicare Beneficiaries During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report that looked into the use of telehealth in both Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 to February 2021. The report found that over 28 million Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth during the first year of the pandemic, or every 2 in 5 beneficiaries. That was 88 times the amount than it was used in the prior year.
The report showed that use peaked in April of 2020 and remained high until early 2021. Beneficiaries most commonly used telehealth for office visits, virtual care services, behavioral health services, nursing home visits, and preventive services. The number of nursing home visits through telehealth during this time period was 3.3 million and accounted for about 3% of all telehealth services provided. Nursing home visits include initial and subsequent visits from a provider with a beneficiary located in a nursing home that are conducted via telehealth. These visits include discussions between a provider and beneficiary regarding a beneficiary’s medical condition, and nursing home discharge management services, among others. Nursing home visits were slightly more common among beneficiaries in Medicare fee-for-service (4% of services) than those in Medicare Advantage (2% of services).