Key Takeaways From the GAO Report on Telehealth Utilization and Quality in Medicaid

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), as directed by a provision in the CARES Act, published a report that examined the use of telehealth among Medicaid beneficiaries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six states: Arizona, California, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee.1 The report explored the states’ experiences with telehealth during the pandemic, future plans for post-public health emergency (post-PHE) telehealth coverage, and efforts by states and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to oversee program integrity risks and monitor telehealth quality.

This GAO report shines a light on current gaps in federal and state telehealth quality-monitoring activities. In response to this report, the state should continue to develop infrastructure and processes to enable data collection and reporting related to quality of care delivered via telehealth. In addition, states should enhance data collection related to beneficiary demographics to enable more accurate analysis of the impact of telehealth on health equity and digital inclusion. Finally, states should review existing program integrity activities related to fraud, waste and abuse for all services (in-person and telehealth) and consider adapting existing procedures or adopting new ones that enable better oversight of Medicaid telehealth utilization and quality.