Bill Correctly for Medicare Telehealth Services

In a recent report, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) improperly paid practitioners for some telehealth claims associated with services that did not meet Medicare requirements. CMS released the Medicare Telehealth Services Video to help you bill correctly. Additional resources:

• Telehealth Services Medicare Learning Network Booklet
• Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 12, Section 190
• Medicare Telehealth Payment Eligibility Analyzer
• List of Covered Telehealth Services Webpage 
• CMS Paid Practitioners for Telehealth Services That Did Not Meet Medicare Requirements OIG Report 

The Society continues to advocate with CMS to expand the use of telehealth in the SNF setting. The Society recently commented that the current restriction for billing SNF subsequent care codes via telehealth needs to be lifted. Proper documentation should always follow the service; however, these services should not be restricted to an arbitrary number but rather meet medical necessity standards.