Industry Voices—The opportunity for telehealth beyond COVID: Expanding access to quality care

Throughout the pandemic, telehealth has provided access to quality care for millions of patients across the country.  Even now, with the return of in office appointments, telehealth continues to broaden access to quality care— particularly in rural areas with fewer providers and for mental and behavioral health services.

We are concerned, however, that tens of millions of Americans could lose access to telehealth care unless Congress acts. Without it, Medicare beneficiaries will lose access to telemedicine services when the public health emergency expires. And, Congress has already let an important consumer protection lapse at the end of 2021 which means consumers will no longer be able to use their Health Savings Account (HSA)’s for telehealth visits pre-deductible.

The good news is that Congress and the Biden Administration can prevent this from happening.

At CVS Health, we are proud to have been a part of the effort to expand access to care through telehealth. During the pandemic, we saw telehealth visits spike from 500,000 visits in 2019 to 17 million in 2020, and more than half (57%) of respondents to our 2021 Health Care Insights used a virtual visit to connect with a healthcare provider. Aetna observed significant rises in telehealth utilization—in 2020 telehealth accounted for 13 percent of all primary care visits, 6 percent for specialist visits, and a staggering 38 percent for mental and behavioral health visits.

There are several actions Congress and the Administration can take and they include:

  • Allowing Medicare Beneficiaries to access health care from wherever they are by removing Medicare’s outdated “originating site” requirements, which limit access to telemedicine based on patient location.
  • Permanently allow patients to initiate a telehealth visit without requiring a pre-existing treatment relationship or in-person exam.
  • Making permanent the High Deductible Health Plan-HSA telehealth flexibilities provided by the CARES Act that expired at end of 2021, so patients can use their HSAs to cover telehealth services prior to reaching the deductible.
  • Allowing medical providers of telemedicine services to operate and serve patients across state lines.
  • Having CMS take steps to continue allowing providers who are providing telemedicine services from home to continue doing so after the PHE ends.
  • Permanently allowing “audio-visual” telehealth-obtained diagnoses to count toward risk adjustment in Medicare Advantage.

Opponents of these changes may point to the absence of measurable data and the threat of increased costs, neither of which are valid. Telehealth providers, including CVS, do have data, and our statistics provide compelling reasons for advancing telehealth as a more permanent option for care.

Specifically, over the last year of the pandemic, our data indicates that the total cost of primary care and specialty services among our customers has not increased despite continued telehealth use with the return of in-office visits. At the same time, our data shows that telehealth provided access to much-needed mental and behavioral health service, the demand for which has skyrocketed since the onset of the pandemic.

We believe that access to telehealth can also be an important tool to reduce future health care costs by providing easier access to more regular management of chronic conditions like diabetes and kidney disease.

At CVS Health, we are dedicated to helping people wherever and whenever they need us—whether that’s managing chronic diseases, staying compliant with their medications, or accessing affordable health and wellness services in the most convenient way. We do that by improving access, lowering costs and being a trusted partner.

Telehealth helps us to meet these goals, and in turn, improves the health and wellbeing of the customers we serve.

Melissa Schulman is senior vice president for government and public affairs at CVS Health.