Telehealth is now a normal part of care, but billing it is still far from simple. As virtual visits become routine, many providers are finding that the real challenge is not offering telehealth. It is getting the billing right every time. What seems like a small mistake can quickly turn into a denied claim, extra rework, or a payment delay.
This whitepaper looks at why that is happening in 2026. It explains why more providers are moving telehealth billing out of house and why this shift is being driven by more than staffing or workload alone. The paper points to a billing environment that has become harder to manage, more detailed, and less forgiving.
The report highlights why this issue is getting more attention.
In 2024, 71.4% of physicians said their practices used telehealth each week. In 2018, that number was 25.1%. Medicare has also kept key telehealth flexibilities in place through December 31, 2027.
At the same time, billing pressure has grown. Experian Health’s 2025 State of Claims survey found that:
What changed in 2026
The report also walks through what has changed in telehealth billing this year. Teams still need to manage place of service, visit format, payer rules, and service eligibility. CMS continues to use POS 02 for telehealth provided outside the patient’s home and POS 10 when the patient is at home. Many Medicare audio-only telehealth services can also continue through December 31, 2027. On top of that, 2026 brought more coding detail, including the telehealth CPT family 98000 through 98016 and additional digital health and remote monitoring codes.
CMS also removed frequency limits for certain inpatient, nursing facility, and critical care telehealth consultations and finalized a permanent definition of direct supervision that allows real-time audio-video supervision in some cases. All of this adds more detail to claims processing and leaves less room for billing mistakes.
Another point the paper makes is simple but important. A lot of telehealth claim problems do not begin at submission. They start earlier. Sometimes the issue begins during scheduling. Sometimes it starts with coverage verification. In other cases, documentation does not fully support the visit that took place. By the time the claim goes out, the problem is already built in. That is a big part of today’s virtual care billing challenges.
The paper also explains why in-house teams are feeling the strain. Rules keep changing. Payer requirements vary. Denials take more effort to fix. On top of that, telehealth brings its own operational pressure, including after-hours support, shifts in demand, technical issues, language needs, and missed follow-up. When these problems build up together, the workflow becomes harder to control with limited internal staff.
Download the whitepaper to see why telehealth billing is becoming harder to manage and why more providers are outsourcing it in 2026.
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