Resources & Reports

CCHP’s February Newsletter is Here! This month’s topics include: CMS Releases Article on CY2022 Telehealth Update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule; Federal Lawmakers Send Letter Urging Leadership to Extend Telehealth Expansions; HHS Proposes Rule to Collect Information on Telehealth for ACA Plan Issuers; No Surprise Act has Disclosure Requirement Implications for Telemedicine Providers; January Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Maps; Spotlight on the National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network (NETCCN) in Supporting COVID Efforts & Preparing for the Next Emergency; New COVID-19 Telehealth Program Funding for 68 Healthcare Providers; Associated Press-NORC Survey on Telehealth Attitudes of Older Adults.

At the end of 2021, a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, which allowed patients increased access to telehealth, expired. Under the law, employees with high-deductible health plans and Health Savings Accounts (HDHP-HSAs) were able to receive telehealth benefits pre-deductible, rather than having to meet certain out-of-pocket thresholds before telehealth would be covered by their employer or health plan. On January 21, 2022, health care stakeholders sent a letter to Congressional Leaders urging them to quickly reinstate these provisions of law and ensure telehealth access is maintained for all Americans. The letter includes the citation of a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, indicating that 96 percent of employers were utilizing that law to offer telehealth coverage pre-deductible to 32 million employees across the country.

The initial decision to deny a Florida-based telehealth company, RemoteICU (RICU), Medicare payments for telehealth treatment delivered by overseas doctors during the public health emergency (PHE) was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last Tuesday. CCHP has been tracking the case since the lawsuit was first filed by RICU early last year against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), arguing that restricting reimbursement for telehealth providers out of the country violated federal telehealth waivers requiring Medicare to pay for critical-care services regardless of whether the provider and patient are in different locations. RICU’s contracted physicians are located abroad but do maintain licenses in the United States.

In December, The PEW Charitable Trusts (PEW) released a new report, State Policy Changes Could Increase Access to Opioid Treatment via Telehealth, exploring the benefits of utilizing telehealth to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and offering states policy recommendations to address telehealth policy barriers that hinder those benefits. The report highlights that research conducted during the pandemic has shown that telehealth-based OUD care improves patient ability to initiate and maintain treatment, in addition to findings that such patients abstain from illicit opioids at the same rates as those that received in-person treatment.

CCHP’s January Newsletter is Here! This month’s topics include: Winter Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder; Revised Version of Medicare 2022 Physician Fee Schedule Available; CMS Medicaid Toolkit Clarifies States Can Reimburse Audio-Only Permanently; Telehealth Among Strategies to Address Customer Experience in New Executive Order; HHS Title X Family Planning Funding to Fuel Telehealth Infrastructure & Capacity; AMA Audio-Only Modifier 93 Effective Jan. 1, 2022; FDA Removes In-Person Requirement for Mifepristone Abortion Pill.