{"id":27190,"date":"2020-05-06T19:07:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T19:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.mtelehealth.com\/?p=27190"},"modified":"2020-05-06T19:07:42","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T19:07:42","slug":"new-hhs-covid-19-telehealth-grants-target-pediatric-licensure-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drmiltie.com\/at-home-testing\/new-hhs-covid-19-telehealth-grants-target-pediatric-licensure-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"New HHS COVID-19 Telehealth Grants Target Pediatric, Licensure Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Health and Human Services Department is issuing $20 million in COVID-19 funds to four telehealth programs for pediatric and maternal care and two efforts to expand interstate license portability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal officials have awarded $20 million to four healthcare providers and two organizations to improve telehealth outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic – including efforts to expand multi-state licensure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The April 30 announcement came from the Health and Human Services Department, which issued the awards through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The money comes out of the CARES Act, which was signed into law in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis new funding will help expand telehealth infrastructure that is already being used during the pandemic to provide essential care, especially to the most vulnerable, including pregnant women and children with special health care needs,\u201d HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThis funding will also help clinicians use telehealth nationally by streamlining the process to obtain multi-state licensure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two grants of $2.5 million were issued by the HRSA\u2019s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), which launched the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact<\/a> in 2017, and the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, which launched the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis investment will assist telehealth clinicians nationally on licensure and credentialing to meet the emerging needs with the COVID-19 public health emergency,\u201d HHS officials said. \u201cRecipients will work with professional and state licensing boards and national compacts to develop a streamlined process for telehealth clinicians to obtain multi-state licensure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

License portability and interstate licensure have been hot topics since well before the Coronavirus pandemic, but telehealth advocates have pushed the issue to the forefront during the emergency, alongside federal and state declarations that have reduced barriers to telehealth and mHealth use to combat the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FSMB has been keeping a running tally<\/a> of states waiving in-state telehealth licensure requirements and issuing emergency licensing declarations during the pandemic, and groups like the American Medical Association, American Telemedicine Association and ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) have been lobbying for license portability. ERIC, for example, recently sent a letter to the 21 states<\/a> that haven\u2019t joined the IMLC asking them to join the compact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not everyone agrees. Some states have seen compacts as a challenge to the business interests of local physicians and hospitals, or a back door to allowing unregulated telehealth companies to treat residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the two licensing grants, $15 million was awarded to four recipients through the HRSA\u2019s Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The American Academy of Pediatrics is getting $6 million, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill\u2019s Maternal Health Care program are getting $4 million apiece, and Family Voices, a New Mexico-based program for families of children with special healthcare needs, is getting $1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HHS officials said those grants will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n