Medicare Expands Definition of Rural for Telehealth

Effective January 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded the definition of “originating sites” to include Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) that are located in rural census tracts of Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Also, as part of the update to the Physician Fee Schedule for 2014, Medicare added “Transitional Care Management Services” to the list of codes eligible for payment when provided via telehealth. Medicare defines “originating site” as the location of an eligible Medicare beneficiary at the time the service is provided via telemedicine. To find out if an authorized originating site is eligible for Medicare telehealth payment, check out the new payment eligibility analyzer from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Check out the tool here.