The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a new payment rule for digital health services, changing how people may pay their physicians and therapists in the future.
Touted to create "a more equitable health care system," the proposed rule is set to allow health practitioners to charge patients even through health apps, telehealth, and audio-only telehealth services.
Unlike in-office consultations, patients would only need to pay for the resources used by the health practitioner when offering their services.
Medicare claimed that the new payment method would "simplify billing and documentation requirements" and support hybrid medical services that have long eluded standardized regulations.
If passed, the new payment rules are scheduled to roll out by next year as the agency implements the new ruling to various digital health services for physicians and non-physician practitioners using the "advanced primary care model."
New Medicare Payment Rule to Standardized Insurance Fees for Digital Health Services
More than simplifying people's healthcare bills, the new payment rule is also noted to provide standardized guidelines for insurance fees and discounts.
For years, digital healthcare services bills, primarily mental healthcare therapies, have been a challenge for many due to the limits of how much insurers can shoulder from their fees.
Experts agreed that implementing such rules would make digital health services more available to many Americans rather than the select few who could afford them in the first place.
In turn, this would help digital health providers and practitioners have better chances of securing customers.
Medicare's Proposed Rule Will Only Cover Limited Digital Healthcare Services
While the new rule sounds good on paper, several medical industry experts noted that Medicare's proposed payment rules would only apply to a select few healthcare services as opposed to all the services approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration.
As Axios has noted, Medicare is only "focusing on the possible" services due to the differences in the services and state laws surrounding paid digital services.
