Resources & Reports

A recent article in Health Affairs, titled Interstate Telehealth Use by Medicare Beneficiaries, examined the data behind interstate telehealth use before and after COVID-19 licensure waivers. The authors analyzed trends in data from 2017-2020, finding that most out-of-state telehealth use was with established patients, and more patients were from rural areas. The article states that based on the research results, policymakers should consider how reinstating limitations on cross-state telehealth use may disproportionately impact access for certain patient populations.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)recently released guidance on the use of remote communication technologies for audio-only telehealth to assist health care providers and health plans, or covered entities, bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules (HIPAA Rules). The goal of the guidance as stated by OCR is to support continued access to audio-only telehealth post-public health emergency (PHE) and make clear that audio-only telehealth is permissible under HIPAA Rules.

CCHP’s June Newsletter is Here! This month’s topics include: Emerging Features of New Telehealth Laws; Revision to Chronic Care Management Services Manual; End of SNF In-Person Visit Requirement Waiver; PHE Likely Extended Due to No 60-day Notice; HRSA National Telehealth Conference – Recorded Sessions Now Available; HealthNet Report on Innovations in Medi-Cal (CA Medicaid); Telehealth Funding for Title X Family Planning Program. 

Telehealth legislation continues to be introduced at the federal level, including the recently released Telemental Health Access to Care Act and the Connecting Rural Telehealth to the Future Act. On May 26^th a bipartisan group of several U.S. Senators put out a discussion draft of the Telemental Health Access to Care Act as part of the Senate Finance Committee’s work regarding improving mental health access through telehealth. The bill would require Medicare coverage of mental health visits via telehealth by providers, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) in certain instances.

As the federally designated National Telehealth Policy Resource Center, CCHP develops educational telehealth policy resources and provides technical assistance to those who have questions regarding state and federal telehealth policies. Recently, the most popular questions CCHP receives revolve around:

1. Licensure exceptions and what state policies are regarding out-of-state providers,
2. How to bill particular payers, primarily Medicare, for services provided via telehealth – including the appropriate billing modifiers and place of service codes to use, and
3. What may potentially lie ahead for permanent telehealth policies post-public health emergency (PHE).

In response to these hot topics, we decided to dedicate this week’s write up to addressing these areas of focus in the hopes of adding some clarity to these sometimes-confusing areas of telehealth policy.