U.S. Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., introduced a bill on June 12 that would codify Medicare reimbursement for community health centers and rural health clinics for telehealth services. The Helping Ensure Access to Local TeleHealth Act would permanently extend benefits and access of telehealth to more seniors, regardless of their geographic location. The legislation […]
By Bailey Bryant | June 15, 2020 The health care sector has long had the capability to use telehealth, but it took the COVID-19 emergency to prompt widespread adoption. After three months of the crisis, emerging data is now making the sweeping rate of that adoption clearer. Seniors are among the most susceptible to the COVID-19 virus. Recently […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), joined a bipartisan letter led by Senators Brian Schatz and Roger Wicker to Senate Leadership urging them to make permanent the provisions from the CONNECT for Health Act that were included in the CARES Act to […]
By Sarah Blumenthal and Richard Harris The COVID-19 pandemic has stirred an urgent need for alternative approaches to patient health assessments, patient monitoring and patient education to reduce additional population exposure to the virus and ease the financial and psychological toll on health care providers and facilities. While some providers and payers utilized remote care management […]
Restart? Revamp? Revive? Renew? No one’s totally sure what we should be calling this, this reconfiguration (maybe that’s the word?), but it must be the brave new world of how we practice medicine in the post-COVID-19 era, on the downslope of the pandemic we’ve just come through, and then on to the future of healthcare. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated nearly $105 million in funding to over 300 healthcare providers to boost telehealth infrastructure as coronavirus outbreaks continue, per Fierce Healthcare. The CARES Act reserved $200 million for telehealth funding in March — and the FCC’s latest distribution of funds doles out aid to larger health systems, including $1 million to […]
When its three-year telehealth pilot ended and the grant money ran out, Long Island Select Healthcare took stock of its options and decided to change its approach to connected health. By Eric Wicklund June 25, 2020 – When Long Island Select Healthcare tallied up the results of a three-year, grant-funded telehealth program in 2017, administrators saw strong results – an […]
The pandemic has changed the way we view healthcare, especially doctor visits for the entire family. The new normal to ensure the health and safety of all persons is through the use of telemedicine, according to Linda Inmon, Extension associate-family and consumer sciences at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Telehealth, also called telemedicine, […]
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak many health care practices were forced to implement telehealth as quickly as possible, and often didn’t have enough runway to deeply consider an ideal long-term workflow. If your practices’ initial reaction was to put something in place that was good enough for now but could be phased out […]
Near the outset of the grueling war against Covid-19, President Donald Trump directed my agency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to recommend the postponement of non-emergency elective surgeries and procedures. The looming threat of a shortage of personal protective equipment and other supplies for health care workers in the face of a surge […]
Dive Brief: Senators on both sides of the aisle signaled their support for permanently removing restrictions to telehealth use at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday. Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said top priorities were axing geographic restrictions and expanding Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for virtual care services. However, […]
Originating site and expansion of CMS reimbursement receive greatest support; parity pay may face an uphill battle. Senators at Health Committee hearing expressed support for continuing certain telehealth policies. Of the 31 temporary federal policy changes, there seems to be the greatest interest in permanently changing the originating site rule and expansion of reimbursement to […]
A group of advocates has launched a taskforce that will develop recommendations on telehealth services to keep in place beyond the coronavirus pandemic, The Taskforce on Telehealth Policy will be convened by the American Telemedicine Association, National Committee for Quality Assurance and Alliance for Connected Care. It will hold its first meeting later this month […]
Last week, new legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require Medicare to reimburse certain telehealth services post the public health emergency period. If passed, the bipartisan Helping Ensure Access to Local TeleHealth Act of 2020 or HEALTH Act of 2020 (the “HEALTH Act of 2020”) would codify Medicare reimbursement and allow reimbursement […]
The response to COVID-19 has increased access to telehealth, and those changes may be here to stay. Read on for expected changes in waivers, coming data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, guidance for skilled nursing facilities, and more. CMS May Extend Telehealth Waivers The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is considering extending waivers on […]