The Secretary of Health and Human Services announced a renewal of the nationwide public health emergency (“PHE”) late on Thursday, July 23, 2020. The announcement came just two days before the then-current PHE designation was set to expire, and will extend the PHE for an additional ninety-day period. The PHE declaration, along with the Stafford […]
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said during a July 9 virtual The Hill event that he supports expanding telehealth provisions that were lifted during the coronavirus pandemic and the agency plans to work with Congress for greater coverage. “I think we’d have a revolution if anyone tried to go backwards on this,” Mr. Azar said, according to Politico. “This is […]
Signed by more than 35 Senators, the letter to HHS and CMS officials asks for ‘a written plan and timeline for permanent administrative changes to Medicare rules governing the provision of telehealth.’ By Eric Wicklund July 07, 2020 – Congress is ratcheting up the pressure on the federal government to explain when and how it will rule on […]
The House of Representatives recently introduced the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, a bill calling for the permanence of telehealth regulations introduced in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Before the pandemic, Medicare beneficiaries could only utilize telehealth services if there was a physician shortage, and this could only be done at a designated […]
Monday, June 22, 2020 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued more than 100 waivers giving healthcare providers the flexibility to meet the demands presented by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These waiver flexibilities are temporary, however. The authority to grant public health emergency-based waivers under §1135 of the Social Security Act is […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new era of telehealth for primary care, and patient-centered care is now easier than ever. This has been the model promoted as early as 1967 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The idea is that the patient and not the physician or the hospital is at the center […]
Stakeholders are calling on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make telehealth policy changes permanent. Healthcare stakeholders are calling for telehealth policy changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic to remain even after the pandemic ends. Since March, federal organizations such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have taken steps […]
During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, HHS has taken steps to make it easier to provide telehealth services. Telehealth — sometimes referred to as telemedicine — describes the use of 2-way communication technology for certain health care services. We encourage health care providers to adopt and use telehealth as a way to safely provide care to […]
Mar 30, 2020 At President Trump’s direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is taking historic and unprecedented steps to equip the American healthcare system with maximum flexibility to respond to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. CMS is issuing a sweeping array of new rules and waivers of federal requirements to ensure that […]
CARE MANAGEMENT SERVICES CMS is taking steps to further refine the codes for transitional care management (TCM) and chronic care management (CCM). They have also created new codes for principal care management (PCM) services for patients that have only one serious condition. Transitional Care Management (TCM) CMS has finalized their proposal to allow for concurrent […]
This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the long-awaited updated version of the CONNECT for Health Act, a bill that is likely to be the most comprehensive bipartisan telehealth reform package to be introduced in this Congress. Lawmakers will consider the bill amid a surge in telehealth popularity and vocal support for telehealth […]
Within one year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must propose regulations that adjust the network adequacy requirements for Medicare Advantage plans to factor in access to telehealth services per a Trump Executive Order. By Dr. Amit Phull 1 Comment / Oct 14, 2019 at 9:00 AM On Oct. 3, President Trump signed an […]
By Casey Ross @caseymross Federal health officials on Monday unveiled a new primary care experiment that seeks to pay doctors for providing stepped-up services that keep patients healthy and out of the hospital, an effort they say will transform basic medical services for tens of millions of American patients. The initiative, called CMS Primary Cares, […]
