350 healthcare organizations request expansion of Medicare Telehealth Access
In a letter Monday, a group of 350 organizations urged Congress to permanently make the Covid-19 Medicare Telehealth flexibility permanent, which expires in September. If Congress can’t permanently make these flexibility permanent, then they hope to see an extension of at least two years.
The letter is for Senate Majority Leader R-South Dakota, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York). Signatories include the Connected Care Alliance, the American Heart Association, the American Telehealth Association, Amazon, Johns Hopkins University and the Medical and National Health Commission.
Before COVID-19, only a few Medicare beneficiaries had access to virtual care. They have to be in a rural setting, not in urban or suburban setting. They can also only use telemedicine in approved original websites, such as hospitals or physician offices. These restrictions were waived during Covid-19 to expand access to care.
“Teacher health has been a continuation of bipartisan policy over the past five years, and there will be no new costs,” the organizations wrote in the letter. “Getting access to national health insurance beneficiaries, even if patients have barriers to accessing in-person care, such as weakened immune system, neurodevelopmental diseases and chronic diseases, can allow patients, in particular, to allow both patients and practitioners to access travel in the service, thus enabling them to access travel and personal visits.
They added that Congress needs to take action “quickly” to prevent these Medicare telehealth services from expired in September, as ongoing visits will support the health care system in several ways. For example, it will provide certainty for Medicare beneficiaries who “otherwise must plan to lose access to clinicians and services they actually use.”
Stopping the expiration of flexibility will also reduce the burden on healthcare workers, allowing more clinicians to provide nearly care.
Furthermore, it will “encourage ongoing investment in technology tools and infrastructure to provide telehealth services, especially for small providers serving rural and underserved communities, who are unable to invest in these tools without ensuring a path to repayment.”
Some of these organizations, including the Connected Care Alliance and the American Telehealth Association, also recently sent a letter to the Drug Enforcement Agency calling on the agency to continue to distribute controlled substances remotely. This was also introduced during Covid-19 and is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
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