The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) announced that it has filed permanent rules to continue expanded telehealth options throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The proposed rules expand eligible telehealth services and eligible providers while relaxing barriers for patients accessing telehealth.
In March, in response to the pandemic, the DeWine administration and ODM took swift action to enhance telehealth options for Medicaid members and providers, along with other significant regulatory relief. The rules allowed Medicaid doctors, specialists, therapists and a wide variety of practitioners to use telehealth for many services previously limited to in-person visitations. Medicaid also approved a wider array of telehealth communications modes including email, telephone, and commonly used internet conferencing platforms
Ohio Medicaid received overwhelming support from both patients and providers for the telehealth expansion. Our partners at the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers (OACHC), The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Service Providers and the Mental Health and Addiction Services Coalition (MHHAC) stressed the benefits of the expansion of telehealth services on our COVID-19 policy response webinar series earlier this year. The expansion of telehealth has not only been successful for primary care providers, but for behavioral health providers, especially in some rural areas where access to behavioral health care is lacking for both adults and kids.
According to ODM, preliminary data shows that telehealth provided a much-needed lifeline to health care services during the initial months of the COVID-19 state of emergency—particularly for behavioral health services. Since the telehealth coverage expansion in March, there have been at least 627,197 members using services totaling approximately 2.6 million claims. Of that number, 200,930 members received telehealth services from certified Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHAS) behavioral health providers totaling approximately 1.28 million claims, and at least 480,305 Medicaid members received telehealth services from non-MHAS providers totaling 1.3 million claims.
The rule will be reviewed by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) and is on track to become effective as the current emergency rule expires.