OIG: ‘Telehealth was critical during pandemic’ 

WASHINGTON – More than two in five Medicare beneficiaries, or 28 million, used telehealth during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the Office of Inspector General. 

In total, beneficiaries used 88 times more telehealth services during the first year of the pandemic than they used in the prior year, the OIG found. 

“Telehealth was critical for providing services to Medicare beneficiaries during the first year of the pandemic,” the OIG stated. “Beneficiaries' use of telehealth during the pandemic also demonstrates the long-term potential of telehealth to increase access to health care for beneficiaries. Further, it shows that beneficiaries particularly benefited from the ability to use telehealth for certain services, such as behavioral health services. These findings are important for CMS, Congress, and other stakeholders to take into account as they consider making changes to telehealth in Medicare. For example, CMS could use these findings to inform changes to the services that are allowed via telehealth on a permanent basis.” 

Other findings from the OIG: 

• Use of telehealth services by beneficiaries peaked in April 2020 but remained high through early 2021. 
• Beneficiaries used telehealth to receive 12% of their services during the first year of the pandemic. 
• Beneficiaries most commonly used telehealth for office visits, which accounted for just under half of all telehealth services used during the first year of the pandemic. 
• Beneficiaries used telehealth for a larger share of their behavioral health services compared to other services.  

The OIG based the study on Medicare fee-for-service claims data and Medicare Advantage encounter data from March 1, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021, and from the prior year, March 1, 2019, to Feb. 19, 2020. It used the data to determine the total number of services used via telehealth and in-person, as well as the types of services used. It also compared the number of services used via telehealth and in-person during the first year of the pandemic and those used in the prior year.