Alliance for Connected Care

ICYMI: Modern Healthcare: CMS Deals Telehealth A Win, But Sector Still Needs Congress' Help Brock E.W. Turner In the proposed rule, CMS permanently allowed for audio-only telehealth when patients are not capable of, or do not consent to, use of video. It also said telehealth practitioners could continue reporting office locations—instead of their home addresses—through 2025. Christopher J Adamec, executive director at industry stakeholder group Alliance for Connected Care, said the provision is welcomed by many providers who use #telehealth and say it's a significant burden to report a physical location. “That flexibility is something clinicians in the Alliance feel very strongly about protecting,” Adamec said. “If a permanent solution had to look different that would be ok, but we don’t want to end up in a situation where a clinician is reporting their address wherever they issue care.”   Learn more about our advocacy on this issue: https://lnkd.in/dX9z7Qqs

ICYMI: U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means passed several pieces of legislation that increase #access to #telehealth. Last June, the Committee passed the Telehealth Expansion Act, which would allow 32+ million Americans with Health Savings Accounts to have permanent access to telehealth and remote care services without first having to meet their deductible. https://lnkd.in/gFFgE5BE Jonathan Kupperman Aneil Gill

JUST ANNOUNCED at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSAgov), HHS National Telehealth Conference - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the first-ever Licensure Portability Grant Program investment in a multi-state social worker licensure compact. #Statelicensure compacts allow states to come together on a common approach to licensing health care providers, allowing providers to practice #acrossstatelines without having to apply for a license in each state. Streamlining licensure while maintaining #quality standards improves #access to services both by better facilitating hiring and by easing pathways to utilizing #telehealth.  https://lnkd.in/gSVC_j69

TODAY: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSAgov), HHS is hosting a virtual National #Telehealth Conference. Conference topics include: - Licensing across state lines to increase access to #behavioral health care - Implications of health policy to inform telehealth’s future - Expanding access to services for #underserved and #lowincome communities - Exploring health care #innovations and future telehealth technologies - Improving #healthequity through expansion of #broadband connectivity and adoption of telehealth Start watching here: https://lnkd.in/g277N2C7

CMS declined to include the 17 new telehealth evaluation and management (E&M) codes, which the agency said were duplicative of existing E&M codes used for in-person visits. The Alliance for Connected Care has advocated that CMS reject the telehealth codes. https://lnkd.in/e4-VVJbg

In the proposed rule, CMS ... said telehealth practitioners could continue reporting office locations—instead of their home addresses—through 2025. Christopher J Adamec, executive director at industry stakeholder group Alliance for Connected Care, said the provision is welcomed by many providers who use telehealth and say it's a significant burden to report a physical location.  “That flexibility is something clinicians in the alliance feel very strongly about protecting,” Adamec said. “If a permanent solution had to look different that would be ok, but we don’t want to end up in a situation where a clinician is reporting their address wherever they issue care.”   

The Alliance was excited to see several advocacy efforts pay off! In addition to these highlights, the Alliance will provide Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services with a detailed response to both positive and negative elements of the proposed rulemaking. The Alliance calls on Congress to take the next step and ensure full statutory authority exists to maintain access to Medicare telehealth services in 2025. https://lnkd.in/dy2ea_2M #Medicare #telehealth #telemedicine

#Alliancewin CMS has proposed not to cover new #telehealth codes that duplicate existing telehealth-eligible services covered by #Medicare. The Alliance applauds this decision, which follows our advocacy this spring to ensure Medicare telehealth services remain equivalent to in-person care. We believe that telehealth is a modality for providing health care, it is not a different service. Interested in our advocacy efforts? Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gW4YhjQx

In January of this year, the Alliance for Connected Care called on CMS to reject the addition of new telehealth codes that would have duplicated services already covered by the Medicare program. Today, CMS resoundingly agreed. "“We do not believe that there is a programmatic need to recognize the audio/video and audio-only telemedicine E/M codes for payment under Medicare.” (page 166) CMS goes as far to include a table demonstrating that, except for the modality, the codes are no different from existing services. This is a victory for all of us that believe telehealth services are equivalent to in-person services. The service is what matters, the modality is here to help patients who might not otherwise have access to care.

ICYMI: A JAMA Network Open article looked into #predeductible coverage and receipt of telemental health visits. Researchers found that when patients were required to pay out of pocket for telehealth visits, they had substantially fewer #telemental health visits, and a larger fraction stopped seeing their #mentalhealth specialists. These findings imply that the expiration of the predeductible telehealth coverage exception in January 2025 may reduce mental health service use, which could lead to worse clinical outcomes. @Kacey Fang @Jaclyn Marshall Mark Fendrick Haiden Huskamp Latoya Thomas Ateev Mehrotra https://lnkd.in/gn56UsKB