The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), issued a new report showing the dramatic utilization trends of telehealth services for primary care delivery in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report analyzes claims data from January through early June and underscores how telehealth flexibilities helped to spur and maintain Medicare beneficiaries’ access to their primary care providers. At the start of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), with stay-at-home orders in place and warnings on the risk for severe illness from COVID-19 increasing with age, the report found Medicare FFS in-person visits for primary care fell precipitously in mid-March. It then found that in April, nearly half (43.5%) of Medicare primary care visits were provided through telehealth compared with less than one percent (0.1%) in February before the PHE. Read the press release.
