Zoom Medicine: Evaluating Recent Changes to CMS Telemedicine Guidelines in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examines the current state of telemedicine in the United States, with a focus on recent policy changes made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between April and October of 2020, the federal government approved 147 additional telemedicine procedures for Medicare beneficiaries, greatly expanding their access to telemedicine. Analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as the New England Quality Care Alliance, show that: 1) the recent changes to the approved telemedicine procedures list led to a dramatic increase in both the number of procedures and the number of specialties approved for telemedicine, 2) the specialties represented on the list of approved telemedicine procedures signal a departure from the status quo, and 3) insurers differed in their approach to telemedicine during the pandemic, and also treated inpatient procedures differently than outpatient procedures. Additional findings are also discussed. In summary, this study demonstrates a need for clinical research to determine the efficacy of the newly-added telemedicine procedures and offers an argument in favor of expanding telemedicine access in the future.