The American Telehealth Association is working with Congress and several federal agencies to shape the fate of policies and payments for telehealth services that have experienced a rapid uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic- 19.
WHY IT IMPORTANT
Now that President Joe Biden has declared the COVID-19 pandemic over, ATA’s Telehealth Awareness Week policy update webinar explored how federal and state telemedicine policies could be disrupted. influence when Congress decides whether to end the public health emergency (PHE).
Federal priorities for telehealth have evolved with the pandemic with restrictions being lifted by Congress deciding whether the limits of some restrictions should be lifted permanently.
PHE must be reviewed every 90 days, so Congress will have to review the extension by mid-October, policy experts presented at Wednesday’s virtual event.
“As we know it, [President] Biden has said in recent days that the pandemic is over, so it’s possible the technical public health emergency could expire in the very near future,” said Megan Herber, director at Faegre Drinker, who advises ATA and ATA Action on all federal policies.
Quinn Shean, strategist at Tusk Ventures and state policy advisor to ATA and ATA Action, said Telehealth payments and provider operations are tightly regulated at the Federal level.
But even if the providers don’t serve Medicare audiences, “the Medicare policy goes down,” Herber added.
For example, before the pandemic, patients had to be in a rural area in a hospital or clinic to receive telehealth reimbursement.
“That’s the status quo – as long as the COVID-19 public health emergency applies,” Herber explains. But in about five months, “all those exemptions will automatically disappear unless Congress does something.”
Policy approaches can vary in different contexts, notes moderator Alexis Gilroy, co-leader of healthcare and life sciences practice at Jones Day. “Where do you get to it based on the specific lane it’s in?”
In terms of state telehealth policy, there are many state priorities as states differ in their approach to telehealth requirements for public and private health plans. , reimbursement for services rendered via telehealth, and eligibility to provide reimbursed services.
Countries also differ in how they regulate synchronous and asynchronous telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Shean explains that they differ on what types of providers can provide telemedicine, what establishes a valid patient/provider relationship, and if out-of-state doctors can provide telemedicine. for in-state patients without a license.
“We have a patchwork of 50 different state requirements here,” she said.
ATA has focused on developing a consistent regulatory framework so that telehealth can be deployed across the states and fully leveraged.
“ATA is committed to implementing modality-neutral policies,” rather than specifying which tools clinicians choose to use to deliver telehealth, she said. ATA is promoting equity payments for telehealth and home health and licensing flexibility across state lines.
“It really aligns our state framework with the 21st Century model of care,” she said, and states are moving fast. There are hundreds of pieces of legislation to update state telehealth policies.
The organization is also working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Congress to address the future of online prescribing of controlled substances.
Many of the barriers to telehealth policy, Shean said, are based on the perception that telehealth falls short of certain standards and that romanticizes inpatient care, but telehealth often provides care in areas where inpatient care is not available. where there was no previous opportunity to access health care.
“We need to recognize the accessibility gaps that telehealth can fill,” said Shean, and recognize the protective railings placed with telehealth like they are with other care settings.
When more retail suppliers like CVS, Amazon and others enter the space through mergers and acquisitions, they will also have an impact on the direction of telehealth policy, including how to protect patient data these companies will have more access.
But with multiple stakeholders driving telehealth at the state level, “having a larger tent will help show the different patient groups that can be served here and bring more focus.” more,” Shean pointed out.
TREND TO BIGGER WOMAN
Under the CARES Act, Congress granted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services the power to waive certain restrictions on Medicare coverage remotely.
The agency was able to remove geographic restrictions, expand home care, increase the number of Medicare-covered services via telehealth, and more.
Additional legislative proposals, including The Workers’ Telehealth Expansion Act, the Telehealth Expansion Act, and others, propose expanding access to telehealth.
Tim Walberg, R-Mich, said during the bill’s introduction at the Capitol in March: “During the pandemic, telehealth has proven to be an important tool for Americans to receive timely care and quality from their own home.
“For rural communities in particular, telemedicine has helped remove barriers to care, expand access to specialists, and improve health outcomes.”
ON PROFILE
“There is an urgency [for Congress] act – don’t wait four months and 20 days after the pandemic is over; we need some stability,” Herber said.
“We want to make it permanent, and we’ve asked for a lot of this policy since before the pandemic, so it’s not really new,” she concluded.
Andrea Fox is the senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
