Federal Agencies Pushed to Do More to Combat Telehealth Fraud

Government agencies should adopt additional safeguards, including more billing controls, to curb potential telemedicine abuses in federal health programs, a federal watchdog committee said.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, an independent oversight committee within the Council of the Inspectors General, also suggested “programs conduct additional, targeted monitoring of telehealth services to identify program integrity risks.” The recommendations were part of its analysis of telehealth usage across six government health-care providers.

Telehealth use in federal health programs exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 37 million individuals utilizing telehealth services in 2020, nearly 13 times higher than the year prior. This meteoric ...