Weekend Article: Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014

APTA's Web site included a news article about the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014, a new bill aimed at removing certain limits placed on "population areas that qualify for Medicare's telehealth reimbursements, allow for much-expanded remote patient monitoring, and include rural health clinics as approved telehealth care sites" (APTA 2014). It will also provide that outpatient physical therapy services "delivered via telehealth technologies would be reimbursable under Medicare" (APTA 2014).


Rep. Mike Thompson's (D-CA) law defines remote patient management services as:

the remote monitoring, evaluation, and management of an individual with a covered chronic health condition (as defined in paragraph (2)), insofar as such monitoring, evaluation, and management is with respect to such condition, through the utilization of a system of technology that allows a remote interface to collect and transmit clinical data between the individual and the responsible physician (as defined in subsection (r)) or supplier (as defined in subsection (d)) for the purposes of clinical review or response by the physician or supplier. Such services shall include in-home technology based professional consultations, patient monitoring, patient training services, clinical observation, assessment, treatment, and any other services that utilize technologies specified by the Secretary (pp. 5-6)

Which is a really wordy way of saying you can get consultations and treatment via video services versus coming to an outpatient clinic, or so it would seem. Which makes perfect sense for someone living with a chronic health condition in rural areas.


The current model of Medicare does not provide reimbursement for areas within a certain distance of clinical sites, and there are no provisions for remote patient monitoring. APTA has watched this bill with great interest, and supports its greater purpose.


I think the greater implications here point to the idea that soon physical therapists will be able to provide remote rehab for patients in certain areas, remote follow-up on patients, it would cut down on travel time between sites ... I don't see a whole lot of negatives. The debate in the comment section on the article was fascinating however. You'd think we just replaced physical therapy with robots.




American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). (2014). New Telehealth Bill Includes PTs, Could Mean Big Changes for Medicare. PT in Motion News. Retrieved from http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/News/2014/8/1/TelehealthBill/.

Thompson, Mike. (2014). Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1225617/thomca-062-xml.pdf