Data Reveals Bigger Picture Beyond HHS' Telehealth Audit

In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released a highly anticipated report assessing Medicare program integrity risks arising from telehealth services furnished during the first year of the pandemic.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, we obtained a broader set of data than what the HHS OIG previously disclosed. This data reinforces what was implicit in the report — the HHS OIG only highlighted the most extreme outliers.

Studying the data offers clues and insights for health care providers who are seeking to gauge the extent to which their own pandemic telehealth billing is consistent with industry trends.