Telemedicine payment expansion sought

One measure would require that Medicare pay physicians the same fee for remote monitoring as for face-to-face encounters.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. July 8/15, 2002.

Washington -- Several lawmakers -- largely prompted by worries about access to rural health care -- say they would like to encourage greater use of telemedicine by expanding its reimbursement under Medicare.

A growing number of monitoring devices allow physicians to track patients' vital signs without the patients needing to leave their homes. But Medicare reimbursement for these services has continued to lag behind the technology.

Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate that would require Medicare to pay physicians the same amount for remote monitoring as they are paid for face-to-face encounters.

Under current law, the program does not pay physicians for most remote monitoring, which is a concern for those who would like to see the service become more widely available, especially to elderly patients who are a long drive from the doctor's office but don't qualify for home health care.

Remote monitoring would benefit a lot of these patients, especially in rural areas, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, W.Va.), one of the lead sponsors of the Medicare Remote Monitoring Services Coverage Act.

"This technology helps doctors to be able to frequently monitor a patient's condition without requiring the patient to drive 20 or 30 miles for an office visit," Rockefeller said.

Under the bill, a doctor would not have to read a patient's heart and blood pressure data in the office to be reimbursed under Medicare. Instead, the physician would track data collected by a diagnostic monitor in the patient's chest and transmitted over the Internet to the physician's office. [...]