Home Health Agencies Want Medicare to Pay for Telephone Visits

Home health agencies are urging the Medicare agency to cover telephone visits with homebound beneficiaries so that the industry can do more to help fight the new coronavirus outbreak.

The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, which represents large, multi-state home health agencies, wants the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to cover visits by telephone as a substitute for in-person nursing, said Joanne Cunningham, the partnership’s executive director.

Medicare’s home health benefit provides in-home nursing care for homebound beneficiaries who need therapy or skilled clinical care. But in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, more patients are asking that clinicians and nurses not come into their homes.

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