First State Medicare recipients – even those in Kent and Sussex County – still can’t get their telemedicine services covered.
Rehoboth resident Marge Flemming Smith’s husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012.
At the time, there were no Parkinson’s specialists in Delaware. And Medicare wouldn’t reimburse telemedicine services. Smith says that means many, like her husband, had to drive all the way to the University of Pennsylvania to seek services.
“The barrier is – when they don’t feel good, and a lot of them are older now, when they don’t feel good they’re not up to making the trip," Smith said.
Smith’s husband eventually received telehealth services in Newark at a UD Parkinson’s research center. But Medicare still doesn’t cover telemedicine services in the First State.
Healthcare attorney Drew Wilson says that’s because old Census Bureau data doesn’t categorize any part of Delaware as rural and eligible for it.
“We think Western Sussex of Delaware for instance: we think rural. Chicken farms, it’s really far away from any big swaths of care and necessary care. And of course we think it’s rural, and I think we’re right," Wilson said. "But Medicare has a national map. So if you’re looking from D.C. and you’re looking at a map of the United States, Delaware looks very close to Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and D.C. and New York City.”
And Wilson says that may not change until new Census data is utilized in 2020.
