Medicare is paying too much for telehealth and at-home care, the executive director of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission told Politico.
"There is almost a universal sense that it takes less time to provide a visit via telehealth than in person," MedPAC leader James Mathews said in the April 5 story. "There's this disconnect between the distribution of services that Medicare is being billed for and the potential time that is actually taken for clinicians to provide those services."
His agency said in a March report to Congress that cutting reimbursements for at-home healthcare could save the government $10 billion over five years without affecting access to care, the news outlet reported.
Mr. Mathews also told Politico that decisions on permanent telehealth expansion should be based on efficacy data from 2022 and 2023 rather than during the height of the pandemic.