Medicare patients in poor neighborhoods benefited most from CMS telehealth expansion, study finds

The study, overseen by Johns Hopkins University, was published in Health Affairs and looked at 30 million Medicare claims between 2019 and 2021. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded telemedicine coverage to patients across the country in March 2020. Prior to the waiver, telemedicine was only covered for beneficiaries in designated rural areas or specific medical facilities.

Before the CMS waiver, 42% of patients had at least one outpatient telemedicine visit, the study found. Though there were no notable differences in use between people in the most and the least...