News: Telehealth adoption on the rise, AMA survey finds

New survey results from the American Medical Association (AMA) found that the number of physicians who use telehealth for visiting with patients has doubled between 2016 and 2019. However, the overall number of physicians using this technology remains low, with only 28% of the 1,300 surveyed physicians reporting they use telehealth.

Half of all doctors surveyed said they plan to use virtual visits within three years, while 53% say they plan to use remote monitoring in order to improve care within the next three years.

However, 85% of physicians expressed concerns about legal liability and said their digital health tools being covered by their malpractice insurance is either very or somewhat important.

A 2018 report by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) report focused an audit on more than 191,000 Medicare distant-site telehealth claims totaling $13.8 million and filed between 1,015 and 2,014 that did not have the required corresponding originating-site claims.

“We estimated that Medicare could have saved approximately $3.7 million during our audit period if practitioners had provided telehealth services in accordance with Medicare requirements,” the report says.

While the documentation was the culprit, the OIG laid the final blame on CMS, saying that the agency failed to ensure that:

• There was oversight to stop payments for errors where telehealth claim edits could not be implemented
• All contractor claim edits were in place
• Clinicians were aware of Medicare telehealth requirements

Organizations looking to continue with or adopt telehealth in the near future should be aware of such audit findings and ensure documentation is a top priority.

Editor’s note: The AMA survey can be found here. Click here to view the 2018 OIG report. Click here for an ACDIS article on Medicare telehealth claims audit.