The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) www.MedPAC.gov have released their “Report to the Congress: Medicare and Health Care Delivery System” http://medpac.gov. The report raises issues for policymakers to consider when addressing how telehealth services will fit into the Medicare program in the future.
It is suggested that until more is known about the efficacy and costs of telehealth, perhaps risk-based payment models such as Medicare Advantage, and bundling along with ACOs, may be the area where Medicare should begin to expand the coverage of telehealth.
The report points out that employers have contributed to growth in the use of telehealth services. Some employers are developing their own services for their employees or perhaps hiring commercial insurers and health systems to provide these services.
Many of the insurers and providers interviewed for the report stated that employers in their markets have become increasingly interested in telehealth services and are requesting that telehealth be built into their benefit packages.
Insurers and health systems assert that employers hope to create convenience for their employees, reduce employee absences, and lower the organizations’ healthcare costs by keeping employees out of emergency departments and urgent care centers.
Walmart www.walmart.com the largest employer in the U.S, has implemented their own telehealth services for their employees. In many of their stores, Walmart has built health clinics that rely on two way video to connect patients with clinicians remotely.
These clinics serve not only Walmart employees and their families but also Walmart customers. Walmart employees enrolled in the employee health plan pay a copayment of $4 per visit and Walmart customers are charged a $40 fee. The company contends that this solution enables timely access to clinicians and increases the quality of healthcare services for their employees.
Based on a survey of employers, Towers Watson, a leading global advisory company http://towerswatson.com has concluded that employers’ coverage of telehealth will increase in future years projecting that 56 percent of employers would cover telehealth in 2016 and over 80 percent in 2018
The National Business Group on Health www.businessgrouphealth.org a non-profit representing large employers on national health policy issues in their 2015 report, concludes that 74 percent of employers plan to offer some form of telehealth to employees in 2016, up from 48 percent who planned to offer telehealth in 2015.