On March 27, Ohio Academy of Family Physicians President Anna McMaster, MD and OAFP Public Policy Commission Chair Sarah Sams, MD, wrote to Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, MD, and all 132 members of the Ohio General Assembly in support of telemedicine payment parity and the need for infusing cash into the primary care system.
The letter states, “On behalf of the 5,200 family physician, family medicine resident, and medical student members of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians, we implore you to act now as the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown this state’s primary care infrastructure into an existential crisis (particularly impacted are those not aligned with large health care institutions). Many primary care practices in this state will close within the next 2 to 6 weeks if cash isn’t infused into the primary care system.”
“Primary care physicians are keeping patients out of hospital emergency departments and doing so with limited protective equipment and other supplies. Yet family physicians are seeing steep dips in office visits as they are forced to cancel preventive care visits and conduct COVID-19 triage and chronic care management via telemedicine. The cancellation of in-person visits and the conversion of most patient encounters to telemedicine have created a dangerous cash flow issue for practices to the extent that the economic viability of practices is severely threatened. Payers reimburse for telemedicine services at a reduced rate assuming they reimburse at all.”
- Create payment parity between in-person and telemedicine visits
- Ensure that telephone/audio visits without a visual component are reimbursed equally with virtual visits with a visual component (many elderly patients do not have access to anything but a phone)
- Allow physicians and other primary care professionals to use multiple platforms for telehealth (not just the health plan’s platform or the platform the payer is pushing)
- Alleviate telemedicine reimbursement delays as delays result in major cash flow issues for primary care practices.”
“Please understand the importance of bolstering this state’s primary care infrastructure. If you don’t act now, the infrastructure may no longer exist to be bolstered.”
Please send a similar message to your state legislator today!