Highlights of the new HHS report, “Medicare Beneficiaries’ Use of Telehealth in 2020: Trends by Beneficiary Characteristics and Location”:
- The share of Medicare visits conducted through telehealth in 2020 increased 63-fold, from approximately 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million.
- Total utilization of all Medicare FFS clinician visits declined about 11% in 2020 compared to levels in 2019.
- Most beneficiaries (92%) received telehealth visits from their homes, which was not permissible prior to the pandemic.
- Visits to behavioral health specialists showed the largest increase in telehealth in 2020.
- Disparities in telehealth were found by race/ethnicity, rural location, and geographic region. Blacks and rural beneficiaries had lower use of telehealth compared with White and urban beneficiaries, respectively.
- Kansas was among the states with the lowest use of telehealth.
You can read the ASPE report here, and view the CMS snapshot here.
