Rebecca Gwilt on the Legal Case for Home Health Telehealth Reimbursement in Home Health Care News
“Based on the industry pressures, the likely public pressure and the statements that have come out of the government thus far, I see no indication that there is any intention to rollback these [telehealth] changes,” she said. “And we’re likely to see continued demand from the patient population for services delivered in this manner now that they know telehealth is both widely available and not as complicated as they may have previously thought.”
Nixon Law Group’s Partner, Rebecca Gwilt, was quoted extensively in an article appearing in Home Health Care News regarding her views on the legal case for home health telehealth reimbursement.
'“Rebecca Gwilt, a partner and co-founder of health care innovation firm Nixon Law Group, was among those who believed the CARES Act would take stronger steps to support telehealth usage across the continuum of care.
‘I was surprised the CARES Act failed to provide a pathway for home health providers to get paid for providing remote care,’ Gwilt told Home Health Care News. ‘[In turn], CMS encouraged the use of telehealth for home health patients, but did not change the policy that only counts in-person visits for the purpose of paying full reimbursement for an episode of care.’
Because Congress and CMS haven’t created a mechanism for telehealth reimbursement, home health providers are effectively penalized for using such tools to supplement in-person visits, according to Gwilt, whose firm works with a variety of health care providers, life sciences entities and medical technology companies. Essentially, that “penalty” comes in the form of paying for costly telehealth systems and visits without financial support from government payers while, at the same time, being exposed to low-utilization payment adjustments (LUPAs).”
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