HIA joins 102 health organizations in support of additional funding for the public health Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The DMI is helping to create a standards-based interoperable public health infrastructure, ensuring all systems can communicate and share data seamlessly.
Health Innovation Alliance Executive Director Joel White Testifies Before Congress on Telehealth
Today Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) Executive Director Joel White testifies before Congress at the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Health hearing entitled: "Charting the Path Forward on Telehealth."
"Telehealth succeeded in filling a critical gap in access to care during the pandemic, proving its effectiveness and value for those with both acute and chronic conditions. Congress should enact common sense reforms to solidify these gains and build a foundation for future progress," said Joel White, Executive Director.
HIA recommendations to Congress:
Permanently extend the temporary telehealth flexibilities to ensure Medicare beneficiaries can continue to receive care remotely once the public health emergency (PHE) ends.
Ensure appropriate tools and incentives are implemented to safeguard taxpayers and patients from fraud or overutilization while transitioning to value-based models of care delivery and reimbursement.
Remember that hundreds of millions of more Americans obtain health coverage outside of Medicare fee-for-service and are looking to Congress to eliminate roadblocks to progress, such as the outdated medical licensure system and limits on account-based plans.
This approach rightly updates Medicare by eliminating the archaic statutory limitations that were developed decades ago that dictate where providers and patients must be to deliver or receive remote care.
Specific policy recommendations also include:
Remove the originating site restrictions in Medicare to allow beneficiaries to receive remote care regardless of their location, including their own homes.
Eliminate geographic requirements to expand telehealth services into suburban and urban areas.
Allow more sites of service and providers to use telehealth to treat beneficiaries. Federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics, for example, should be able to provide remote care to their patients. Additionally, more care professionals, like physical therapists, speech pathologists, and occupational therapists, should be allowed to use and bill for telehealth services.
Allow audio-only telehealth visits for patients who do not have the option of using video technology.
Allow the remote authorization of dialysis care through telehealth technologies instead of requiring an in-person visit.
Funding for nationwide access to broadband.
Make telehealth account based programs permanent.
Ease licensure issues by allowing providers with existing patient relationships to provide virtual care when a patient is in another state.
Establish program integrity safeguards:
1. Audit top billers: Require CMS to audit the top five percent of billers for telehealth services and identify any outliers for additional scrutiny.
2. Expand the Right Incentives: Allow all Alternative Payment Models (APMs) flexibility to use telehealth to advance value-based, virtual care.
3. Use the Technology to Full Effect: Use data inherent to telehealth technologies to improve program integrity in telehealth including advanced analytics and Artificial intelligence (AI).