How Can Feds, MCOs Make Medicaid Telehealth Use Last?
More and more health care is making a permanent move to the internet following the pandemic-driven virtual care boom — which is a big reason why Medicaid MCOs are doing more to bring telehealth and even broadband internet access to their members. That’s according to a Sept. 23 panel of federal officials and an insurance executive at the AHIP National Conference on Medicare, Medicaid and Dual Eligibles.
“Over the last 18 months, we saw a huge uptake of telehealth in the [U.S.] — it’s like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Joanne Jee, policy director and congressional liaison at the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). “All the states turned on a dime to expand their Medicaid coverage in very meaningful ways. Prior to the pandemic, nearly all states covered some form of telehealth. But what we saw in the pandemic is that all states are covering telehealth in a more expansive way.”