A bipartisan group of 50 Senators, led by Senator Brian Schatz introduced the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act of 2021, which builds on prior iterations of the bill with learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Last year as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many providers to close their doors for in-person care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Congress acted quickly to provide waivers, administrative relief, and reimbursement for telehealth services so patients could receive care safely at home.
Many of these flexibilities are tied to the public health emergency (PHE) declaration that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the authority to declare and extend under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act. The PHE was most recently extended by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for another 90 days on April 21. It is anticipated that HHS will keep the PHE in place for at least the remainder of 2021, and possibly longer, though permanent telehealth policy changes will need to come from Congress. Congress typically works better under deadlines, so the end of the PHE will be an action-forcing event th
Medically Reviewed
You’ll need to be able to place your device on a stationary surface to show your doctor how you’re walking or moving other body parts.
iStock
When the COVID-19 pandemic first started sweeping through the United States in the spring of 2020, visits to doctors’ offices and medical clinics ground to a screeching halt, with patients staying home to avoid getting the virus.
But people with chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as those with acute medical problems other than COVID-19, still needed access to healthcare, and in short order, telemedicine began to emerge as an alternative to in-person care.
email article
Making the pandemic s emergency suspension of Medicare s telehealth rules permanent got overwhelming support at a virtual hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce s health subcommittee on Tuesday.
Members touted their bipartisan appreciation for what the technology has done and can yet do for healthcare. It s time to make Medicare reimbursement for telehealth permanent, said subcommittee chairwoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) in opening the hearing. Telehealth isn t the silver bullet for the deeper problems that exist in our healthcare system, but it s demonstrated great promise for high quality, innovative care if we intentionally create legislation that fits our nation s needs.
Your typical health care visit used to consist of driving to a clinic or office, filing out some paperwork, and waiting for someone to call your name when your provider was ready for you.
Then, the coronavirus hit. Suddenly many people were attending appointments on the computer or over the phone, and
telehealth became a household word.
While telehealth appointments have been around for decades, they were on the periphery of the health care system. After the pandemic made it impossible to deliver health care in the same ways as before, telehealth became necessary, and barriers to reimbursement, technology, and licensure began to fall. Some health systems had to move from small-scale telehealth implementation to 100 percent virtual encounters overnight. Patients soon began seeing their doctors from within their own homes. Even in the inpatient setting, they increasingly interacted with health care providers through iPads. Telehealth’s recent progress is something “that most pe