MedPac Report on Telehealth Services: Insights and Implications

Recently, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released a report developed by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), which provides an update to a previous 2023 report examining telehealth’s association with healthcare quality, access and cost in Medicare. Key metrics were developed to measure quality, access, and cost in a setting where both telehealth and in-person visits are available for fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries. The health quality outcomes that were examined focused on ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations and emergency department visits, while access outcomes focus on clinician encounters. Key findings include the following:

1.           Telehealth and Quality: No significant association was found between telehealth intensity and quality outcomes.

2.           Telehealth and Access: Higher telehealth intensity was associated with fewer clinician encounters for both behavioral and non-behavioral health.

3.           Telehealth and Costs: There was evidence suggesting that higher telehealth intensity is associated with a decrease in the total cost of care, although the results were not conclusively definitive.

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