Telehealth on hold: Keep seeing patients online? Or shift visits to the office?

With telemedicine reimbursement on hold for now, leaders of medical organizations must make the choice between offering services that may not be reimbursed, or changing the ways they serve patients. Here the choice is explained by Kyle Zebley is senior vice president, public policy, of the American Telemedicine Association, and executive director of ATA Action, its advocacy affiliate.

Medical Economics: What is the best advice for medical practices to follow at this time? Should they continue as normal, or should they try to shift as many visits as possible to be in person?

Kyle Zebley: I cannot offer a one-size-fits-all blanket piece of advice. Each organization has to look in within themselves, has to consult with their folks that are doing operations and compliance, coverage and reimbursement issues, and they have to decide, are we going to roll the dice, take the risk, to continue to offer these services and potential financial loss to them, and with the hope that they'll eventually get reimbursed retroactively, as we're pushing for, and which we hope and really expect to see? But there's no guarantees, like I said. Or are you in a position where you do not have the financial wherewithal to last that long? Because it's an unanticipated timeline here. We don't know how long the shutdown will last, and therefore you're going to make the very difficult decision to not continue to offer care to Medicare beneficiaries via virtual means. It's a set of bad options, and it's one that each organization have to make an assessment on with a risk-based approach. But I can't offer any clear guidance other than what we know. And what we know is the Acute Hospital Care at Home program is effectively suspended, there's no ifs ands or buts about that. And in regard to the Medicare telehealth flexibilities, other organizations armed with the same information, any of your viewers and listeners have, armed with that same information, many esteemed organizations across the country are continuing to offer the services with the hope that they'll be made whole.