Now on Demand—Telehealth and COVID-19: What’s New, What’s Next and What the Changes Mean

Barry LeePartner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

A Recent Manatt Webinar Shared How COVID-19 Is Reshaping Telehealth Policies, Trends and Imperatives—Today and Into the Future—for Providers, Payers and Policymakers. Click Here to Register Free and Download a Free Copy of the Presentation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted telehealth into overdrive, with virtual healthcare interactions on pace to top 1 billion by the end of 2020, according to Forrester Research. Analysts now expect general medical care telehealth visits to top 200 million this year, up from their original projection of 36 million, and coronavirus virtual visits could top 900 million.

Faced with the pandemic, providers scaled their telehealth capabilities at dizzying speeds as they looked for ways to diagnose, triage and treat patients while reducing disease spread. At the same time, previous cost and regulatory barriers crumbled as states and commercial payers introduced novel reimbursement policies and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other federal agencies implemented new flexibilities.

A recent Manatt webinar shared which policy changes are likely here to stay and which will end with the pandemic—and examined what the evolving telehealth environment means for providers, payers and policymakers. The program also featured key on-the-ground insights from Sylvia Romm, Chief Innovation Officer, Atlantic Health System. We don’t want you to miss any of the valuable information presented during the program. If you or anyone on your team could not attend the session—or want to view it again—click here to access the webinar free on demand and download a free copy of the presentation. Key topics include: :

  • A firsthand provider perspective on rapidly scaling telehealth capabilities in response to COVID-19
  • Trends in telehealth adoption and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Telehealth coverage and reimbursement changes in Medicare, Medicaid and commercial coverage
  • Telehealth policy changes related to cross-state licensure, fraudulent claims and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • Considerations for payers and policymakers in designing their post-COVID-19 telehealth policies
  • Implications for providers in rethinking their post-COVID-19 strategic imperatives
  • Gazing into the crystal ball—predictions on the post-COVID-19 telehealth landscape

If you have any questions or issues you’d like to discuss after viewing the webinar, please feel free to reach out to our Manatt presenters:

P.S. Manatt Health has developed a comprehensive 50-state tracker for state-specific legal, policy and regulatory changes related to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our state summaries cover state licensure flexibilities related to COVID-19, telehealth coverage and payment changes for commercial plans, and telehealth coverage and payment changes in Medicaid. To read our most recent summary of state-by-state telehealth changes in response to COVID-19, click here. If you are interested in learning more about our 50-state tracking tool, please contact Jared Augenstein at [email protected] or 212.790.4597.

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