The benefits of telemedicine have been well documented over the past 40 years with a wealth of data about the cost effectiveness and efficacy of many telemedicine applications. Not only does it expand access to health services it has been shown to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency and effectiveness through such areas as better management of chronic diseases, shared health specialists, fewer hospital stays and re-admittances, and reduced patient and provider travel times. Estimates of annual net cost savings to Medicare resulting in the widespread adoption of telemedicine services range from $2 billion to over $4 billion per year.¹ Studies indicate that the use of telemedicine for such applications as monitoring of chronic care patients or allowing specialists to provide care to patients over a large region have resulted in significantly improved quality of care. And, finally, consumers want it. Patient satisfaction with the use of telemedicine to access care and the use of telecommunications technologies to connect with specialists and other health care providers in order to meet unmet health needs has consistently been very high.

Therefore, we strongly urge Congress to expand Medicare's very limited coverage for telehealth services, as follows:

Telehealth services should be available to all Medicare beneficiaries regardless where they live, not just the 21% who reside in non-metropolitan counties and are currently eligible. The current artificial restrictions make no sense and only thwart the broader public from accessing the benefits offered by telemedicine and further restrict the cost benefits to taxpayers.
Similarly, such services should be available from any Medicare approved facility and by any Medicare approved practitioner.
Teleradiology services have been covered Medicare throughout the country and accessed via store-and-forward technology for many years. Many other Medicare services have been provided using similar store-and-forward technology in Alaska and Hawaii and have proven to be of high quality and cost effective. Such benefits should be extended to all 50 states.
The use of home telehealth and other forms of remote monitoring have proven to be of huge personal, medical and financial benefit for chronically ill patients and should be a recognized and reimbursable component in the provision of Medicare covered home care.

The national health reform act, H.R. 3590, includes some Medicare and Medicaid provisions to explore home telehealth and patient monitoring.
There are 2 major pending bills to go further:

Although this virtual coalition is focused on improving Medicare law, these provisions should apply to other public and private payors or insurers of health care services. For example, about 10 states already require that if an insurer covers a service then it shall be covered when delivered by a telehealth method.

¹ Various studies including: Arthur D Little: “Can Telecommunications Help Solve America’s Health Care problems?” and “Outcomes of an Integrated Telehealth Network Demonstration Project”; Telemedicine Journal and e-Health. 2003; etc.