Listen now (19 mins) | Listen Now Telehealth and remote monitoring services generally enable physicians to treat patients and monitor their health status remotely. Because of advances in wireless communication and biosensor technology these services are increasingly being used in the commercial health care market and as well in the Medicaid program and the VA because research shows these services can reduce acute care visits and lengths of stay, iatrogenic harm and improve patient adherence to care. Nevertheless, the Medicare program restricts reimbursement for these services largely because CMS (the Congress and the CBO) see them moreover as duplicative (v. substitutive) services. For example, in 2014 Medicare spent just $14 million on telehealth service reimbursement. (Total Medicare spending in 2014 was well north of $500 billion).