The Government Accountability Office on March 31 recommended CMS assess the effect increased telehealth use is having on the quality of care received by Medicaid beneficiaries.
To determine how much telehealth use expanded during the pandemic, the GAO studied CMS data from Arizona, California, Maine, Mississippi and Missouri. The agency found that 32.5 million telehealth services were delivered to about 4.9 million beneficiaries in the five states from March 2020-February 2021, compared to 2.1 million services to about 455,000 beneficiaries during the previous year.
The GAO said although telehealth use has soared among Medicaid beneficiaries, CMS has not collected data on the quality of care these services provide. The GAO recommended CMS collect that data, analyze it and determine next steps based on the results.