Resources & Reports

In the January 23, 2024 edition of CCHP’s In Focus, we reported on a lawsuit filed late last year in the US District Court for New Jersey. The plaintiffs in Shannon MacDonald, MD, et al v. Otto Sabando claimed that New Jersey’s licensure restrictions on the use of telehealth are unconstitutional. Licensure of medical professionals, in this case physicians, is within the jurisdiction of states to decide and regulate. However, the MacDonald v. Sabando case is making the argument that New Jersey’s licensure laws violate the US Constitution as they infringe on basic civil rights everyone has and therefore should be struck down.

CCHP’s April Newsletter is here! This month’s topics include – CMS Updates FQHC, RHC and Mental Health MLN Booklets; OMB Unveils AI Governance Policy for Federal Agencies; Latest Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; CMS Covered Entity Tool and Adhering to Standards for Electronic Transactions; An Update on Telehealth and Medication Abortion; FAIR Health Telehealth Usage for December 2023; New Study Examines Telehealth’s Role in Supporting Pregnant Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder. 

A recent article in mHealth Intelligence highlights how telehealth as part of a community-based approach can overcome the digital divide and improve access to care. While ensuring access to telehealth at home is ideal, for communities without access to quality and affordable broadband, digital devices, or digital literacy issues, community-based telehealth initiatives seek to instead meet individuals in their communities to address their technology needs. Community-based approaches include creating telehealth access points in common community spaces, providing devices to those that need them, as well as integrating digital navigators and digital navigation training into overall health care delivery systems.

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a new audit report related to telehealth evaluation and management (E/M) services. The nationwide audit of services provided between March 1, 2020 through November 30, 2020 found that, generally, providers met Medicare requirements when billing for evaluation and management (E/M) services (office/outpatient visit codes) via telehealth. While some documentation issues were identified on a small amount of the claims sampled (5 out of 110), the OIG report did not include recommendations given the high overall level of provider compliance found.

While some very important questions regarding the future of temporary waivers on telehealth policies in Medicare, as well as the prescribing of controlled substances, continue to be unanswered, there have been some new developments in the past few weeks related to federal telehealth policy. Some of the recent discussions in Congress as well as actions by the Biden Administration may provide some insight on the fate of some of these temporary telehealth policies.