Six of the seven Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) are scheduled to jointly host a multijurisdictional contractor advisory committee (CAC) meeting on February 28, 2023. This CAC panel meeting will allow the MACs to obtain feedback from a panel of experts on the strength of currently published evidence on remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic […]
Jan. 26, 2023 By Stephanie QuinnSenior vice president of advocacy, practice advancement and policy I want to pick up here where I left off earlier this month in my conversation with AAFP President Tochi Iroku-Malize, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., about key Academy and primary care wins in the 2023 omnibus spending package. That $1.7 trillion bill, the Consolidated Appropriations […]
BakerHostetler attorneys Vimala Devassy and Justin Chavez analyze how the extension of the Covid-19 public health emergency impacts telehealth practices. They say it’s important to have permanent rules in place when the PHE ends. The pandemic has brought about a seismic shift to telehealth. The renewed federal declaration of the public health emergency through April […]
By Mark Melchionna January 23, 2023 – In pursuit of reliable telehealth access for Medicare beneficiaries, the Alliance for Connected Care wrote a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting an interim final rule (IFR) to ensure that access to some Medicare telehealth services is not eliminated soon after the public health emergency (PHE) ends. Some […]
By John Glaser and Kyle Zebley January 20, 2023 One of the few positive side effects of the deadly and catastrophically disruptive Covid-19 pandemic has been the blossoming of telehealth. Though useful telehealth technology has been available for several years, adoption was slow until providers had to scale it up in a matter of weeks as a […]
Monday, January 16, 2023 Much is being written about “remote work” – is it productive, will demand for it continue or be curtailed in a recession, is cybersecurity compromised, does it inhibit workplace culture, collaboration, etc. Lots of questions, few clear answers. The discussion seems largely centered on office workers, professional services providers like me, […]
Jan 10, 2023 Renee Dowling Learning about the telehealth codes you’ll need to use in 2023. Question: Can you please give us the new telehealth services codes for 2023? A: Medicare Telehealth Services for 2023, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is adding new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes to the list […]
Telehealth oncology services saved patients with cancer time, travel and money, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open. The findings suggest expansion of telehealth services could effectively reduce financial burdens among those with cancer, researchers concluded. Rationale and methods As the cost of cancer care continues to increase, patients undergoing cancer treatment face significant […]
Friday, January 6, 2023 Introduction On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (the “Act”). The Act provides for nearly $1.7 trillion in funding across a range of domestic initiatives, including certain appropriations to healthcare and related programs. In addition to funding, the Act modifies certain telehealth provisions, expands and extends components […]
By Mike Miliard December 22, 2022 The American Telemedicine Association this week cheered the bipartisan omnibus appropriations bill from both houses of Congress for including a two-year extension for Medicare telehealth flexibilities that have been in place since the COVID-19 public health emergency was declared in 2020. WHY IT MATTERSThe telehealth group’s ATA Action affiliate […]
22 December 2022 Health Care Law Today Author(s): Nathaniel M. Lacktman Many of the telehealth flexibilities that became popular with both patients and clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic will expire when the public health emergency (PHE) ends. After three years of operating under these waivers, an abrupt ending to them could cause significant disruption to telemedicine providers […]
December 22, 2022 Expanded telehealth access extended for two years. The ‘omnibus’ fiscal 2023 spending bill before Congress Thursday contains extensions for four areas of improved national telehealth access developed during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) starting in January 2020. Because they apply to Medicare and high-deductible health plans (HDHP), they become guidelines for commercial […]
Assessing the ongoing evolution of telehealth policies and regulations, a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund described how rules vary between different US states, resulting from states’ unique experiences early in the pandemic. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most in-person care services were restricted as lockdowns proliferated across the country. As a result, providers began […]