Medical Economics December 7, 2021
Telehealth visits increased, but overall utilization of Part B declined
A government report from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation’s Office of Health Policy found that the number of Medicare fee-for-service visits increased dramatically in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2019, there were 840,000 Medicare FFS telehealth visits compared to 52.7 million in 2020.
Despite the massive increase in telehealth visits during the pandemic, total utilization of all Medicare Part B clinician visits declined about 11% in 2020 compared to 2019.
The vast majority of beneficiaries (92%) received telehealth visits from their homes, which was not permissible in Medicare prior to the pandemic. Telehealth made up less than 1% of visits across all visit specialties but increased substantially in...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor