{"id":32063,"date":"2021-03-18T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.mtelehealth.com\/?p=32063"},"modified":"2021-03-18T17:44:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:44:20","slug":"protecting-access-to-post-covid-19-telehealth-act-reintroduced-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drmiltie.com\/at-home-testing\/protecting-access-to-post-covid-19-telehealth-act-reintroduced-to-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act Reintroduced to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

This week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act<\/a> to the U.S. House of Representatives. Telehealth has expanded both at the individual provider and hospital system levels through support from federal and state emergency measures aimed at increasing access during the pandemic. Without legislative intervention many of these measures will disappear when the public health emergency ends. With this in mind, the Bill\u2019s sponsors are focused on ensuring telehealth\u2019s widespread accessibility for patients across the nation continues after the COVID-19 crisis subsides. The Bill\u2019s sponsors have praised telehealth<\/a> as an essential, cost-effective method of delivering care. They also expressed that telehealth should be widely available to address current needs, and those that could arise from future emergencies or disasters, and \u201cto ensure that everyone has access to quality care no matter where they live or how mobile they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill was originally introduced in the House in July 2020, but it, along with an array of other healthcare-related bills, did not make it through last year\u2019s Congress. Although the year-end stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in late 2020 addressed telehealth, sponsors of the new telehealth Bill believe that legislation did not go far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, federal legislation has limited Medicare coverage for telehealth, while private payers have increasingly relied on telehealth to furnish care to their insureds when in-person care is not an option. Supporters of the Bill note the disparity between coverage for Medicare beneficiaries versus private insureds has been highlighted by the unprecedented demands of the pandemic. As such, the reintroduced Bill aims to protect telehealth\u2019s current use and expand it moving forward by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n