As the COVID-19 PHE comes to an end, Governor Hogan signed into law “Preserve Telehealth Access Act of 2021” to prolong the benefits of telehealth throughout Maryland. Effective July 1, 2021, and for the duration of two years, Commercial and Medicaid insurance plans will have to reimburse providers for telehealth and audio-only services in the state of Maryland, without making them use their proprietraty payer software or forcing patients to go to specific locations to receive these services. Here’s a summary, for both Commercial insurance and Medicaid:

  1. Allow appropriate health care services delivered via audio-only modality.
  2. Remove originating and distant site restrictions for patients and providers, thus allowing the telehealth services to be rendered regardless of the location of the patient or provider.
  3. Allow the same reimbursementfor clinically necessary services, whether delivered via telehealth or in person.
  4. Expand remote patient monitoring (RPM)to allow synchronous or asynchronous digital technologies, by including in the definition support for veriety of data and input types. Please see the links belowfor further detials.

To view the entire new Act, please visit: https://trackbill.com/bill/maryland-senate-bill-3-preserve-telehealth-access-act-of-2021/1957644/

Please note, these changes do not apply to Medicare, as Congress will need to vote to make Medicare changes permanent.

University of Maryland Medical System has great resources for the new Telehealth Act and COVID-19 payer updates:

https://www.umms.org/telehealth-services/resources

If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We’re happy to help any way we can! Please contact JuliaKonovalovat julia@medicalbusinesspartners.com or Kate Gilman atkate@medicalbusinesspartners.com.