Page 28 - Part 2 Introduction to Telemedicine

SVMIC Introduction to Telemedicine

The patient’s location at the time of service is known as the

originating site. Medicare treats telehealth almost exclusively as a
tool for rural areas, and narrowly restricts the geographic areas

eligible to use it. The originating site must be in a Health
Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) as defined by Health

Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), or in a county that

is outside of any Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as defined by
the US Census Bureau.

Facilities

In addition to the rural restriction, Medicare limits originating sites
eligible for telehealth-delivered services to the following facilities:

 Provider offices

 Hospitals

 Critical access hospitals

 Rural health clinics

 Federally qualified health centers

 Skilled nursing facilities

 Community mental health centers

 Hospital-based or critical access hospital-based renal

dialysis centers

Chronic Care Management and Remote

Monitoring

In 2015, CMS created a new chronic care management (CCM)

code, which provides for non-face-to-face consultation. This made
reimbursement possible for virtual asynchronous remote

monitoring of chronic conditions. Since then, CMS has released

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