Resources & Reports

As the year winds down, the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) is providing its annual State Legislation Roundup.  Enacted state telehealth bills in the 2022 legislative session followed trends forged in the previous 2021 legislative cycle, although at a slightly lesser volume.  While 2020 was largely focused on scrambling to meet the needs of the population during the COVID pandemic through temporary telehealth waivers and flexibilities, both 2021 and 2022 challenged states to decide how to translate their temporary COVID policies into permanent telehealth policies, and in many cases making adjustments to their previously passed laws concerning telehealth.

Established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA), Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) became a new designation in the Medicare program and an eligible originating site for telehealth delivered services (to go into effect in 2023).  The designation is meant for facilities that convert from either a critical access hospital (CAH) or a rural hospital with less than 50 beds and that do not provide acute care inpatient services (although there is an exception for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services).  However, some rural hospitals and CAHs are hesitating to adopt the new model.

On November 1, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their final rule for the CY 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS).  CMS had previously released their proposed version on July 7, 2022.  After receiving submitted feedback from the public during the comment period, CMS published the final version that, unless otherwise stated, will have policies going into effect January 1, 2023.  Much of what was proposed in July remains in this final version.

In 2021, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) made a series of proposals for permanent telehealth policies post-COVID-19. At that time, telehealth advocates raised concerns and the Administration and Legislature agreed to delay making any permanent decisions until 2022 while additional feedback from stakeholders could be gathered. In the meantime, the temporary telehealth COVID policies DHCS enacted in response to the pandemic would remain at least through the end of 2022.  With 2023 now looming, the time for new permanent policies has come and two pieces of legislation, SB 184 and AB 32 (Aguiar-Curry), will enact new telehealth policies in the new year.