Resources & Reports

A recent Journal of General Internal Medicine study, Comparative Analysis of Clinical Outcomes Related to Telehealth and In-Person Encounters Among Older Veterans with Diabetes, found that telehealth can lead to improved patient satisfaction, continuity of care, and clinical outcomes. The study assessed Veterans Health Administration data from 2019-2021 to examine the use of hybrid telehealth, which is telehealth-based care in addition to in-person care, for chronic disease management. As noted in a Bioengineer article discussing the study, telehealth has emerged as a critical modality for delivering healthcare to the veteran population, who often reside in rural areas with limited access to conventional, in-person medical services. Moreover, telehealth offers a realistic solution to the mobility challenges often experienced by this demographic.

On October 1, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance regarding Medicare telehealth claims during the government shutdown via a special edition of the Medicare Learning Network (MLN) Newsletter. In the update, CMS stated that when legislative payment provisions are scheduled to expire, CMS directs Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to implement a temporary claims hold, typically of up to 10 business days. The hold is meant to prevent a large reprocessing of claims if Congress acts after the statutory expiration date, which was September 30, 2025. As the 10-day hold period had expired on October 14, CMS has now issued an additional claims hold update on October 15, 2025, stating that in anticipation of possible Congressional action, CMS has instructed all MACs to continue to temporarily hold claims with dates of service of October 1, 2025 and later for services impacted by the expired Medicare legislative waivers.

CCHP’s October newsletter is here! This month’s topics include – MEDICARE: Telehealth Policy – Where Do We Stand Post-Waiver Expiration?; NEW(ish):  MONTHLY COLUMN IN THE CCHP NEWSLETTER; Federal Agencies and Congress Turn Their Attention to AI in Health Care; Ethical and Professional Perspectives on Telehealth: Insights from ACOG and AOA; ATA Launches Digital Infrastructure Score to Benchmark Community Readiness for Telehealth; Study Finds Gaps in Same-Day Mental Health Access for Telehealth Patients; Latest Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder.