Resources & Reports

Telehealth policy continues to evolve across the country, with states regularly updating requirements related to coverage, reimbursement, professional practice, and access to care. Each month, CCHP’s Policy Finder Update highlights recent changes identified through our ongoing 50-state telehealth policy tracking, providing a snapshot of key developments and emerging policy trends.  Since our last policy finder update newsletter on July 14, the following states have been updated: District of Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Vermont.

As many of our readers are already aware, last month, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) released their proposed CY 2027 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), for which CCHP subsequently did a deep dive on the telehealth related proposals within our July 28 #TelehealthTuesday newsletter.  Among one of the non-telehealth specific proposals included in the PFS was a request for information (RFI) on potential alternatives to the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system and Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC). This is an important area to highlight for our readers, as both CPT codes and RUC’s recommendations and valuations have significant impact on what Medicare covers and how much is paid for a service, including those provided via telehealth.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) have become increasingly common tools for supporting patients between office visits and enabling clinicians to monitor health conditions remotely. While both involve collecting patient-generated data outside of a traditional clinical setting, they are designed for different purposes and have distinct billing requirements.

On July 14, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their proposed CY 2027 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). The PFS is the vehicle used by CMS to make changes for the upcoming year within the Medicare program.  At this time, these changes are only proposals and the public has until September 14, 2026 to provide comments. The PFS proposals are usually finalized later in the year, often this occurs sometime in November of each year.  Unless otherwise stated, the finalized changes will go into effect on January 1, 2027. Below is a brief summary of each proposal related to telehealth below.

As telehealth has become a routine part of healthcare delivery, federal and state agencies continue to strengthen efforts to identify and prevent fraud involving virtual care. Recent developments at the federal level reflect a growing emphasis on collaboration, data sharing, and coordinated enforcement to protect the integrity of healthcare programs while preserving access to legitimate telehealth services. One recent example is the launch of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Medicaid Fraud Data Sharing Initiative.  The charge of this initiative is to bring together federal agencies, state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), and participating state partners to improve the sharing of information related to Medicaid fraud investigations.