December 22, 2022 Expanded telehealth access extended for two years. The ‘omnibus’ fiscal 2023 spending bill before Congress Thursday contains extensions for four areas of improved national telehealth access developed during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) starting in January 2020. Because they apply to Medicare and high-deductible health plans (HDHP), they become guidelines for commercial […]
Assessing the ongoing evolution of telehealth policies and regulations, a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund described how rules vary between different US states, resulting from states’ unique experiences early in the pandemic. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most in-person care services were restricted as lockdowns proliferated across the country. As a result, providers began […]
Congress is expected to pass an omnibus spending bill this week that would extend pandemic-era Medicare telehealth waivers until the end of 2024. The bill would also keep in place the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) innovative Hospital at Home program, and continue several other programs aimed at boosting connected health access and coverage. Among several organizations […]
The 2023 final rule didn’t give rehab therapists much in the way of clarity when it comes to the long-term future of telehealth as a reimbursable service. But, it did present a path forward—if therapists are willing to take it. Here’s where rehab therapy telehealth stands in 2023, and how it can become a permanent addition in […]
Advocates for telehealth kept pressing Congress to ensure access for virtual care, and it appears lawmakers got the message. Lawmakers are working on final approval of the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill before the government is slated to shut down at the end of the week. Senate leaders included a provision to extend telehealth waivers […]
Potential pay cut relief that addresses some physician and therapist concerns is tucked into a 4,000-page proposed 2023 spending bill announced Monday by members of Congress. The draft bill would offset more than half of a key cut the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services planned to enact with the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule’s physician […]
A major end-of-the-year spending package released early Monday only gave partial relief to physicians seeking to get rid of a 4.5% pay cut set to go into effect next year, amid other major health policy reforms. Congress is expected to pass the $1.7 trillion package by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Here is a […]
The proposed $1.66 trillion omnibus government funding bill – which is expected to pass through the U.S. House and Senate this week – includes multiple home-based care provisions of importance. Among those is new home health payment transparency language, an extension of the rural add-on, a separate extension of the Money Follows the Person program […]
Dear CTeL Members, This morning, Congressional leadership released text of the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). This legislation includes more than $1.7 trillion in discretionary resources to fund various aspects of our federal government, including a 2-year extension of the telehealth waivers we have benefited from during the federal public health emergency. […]
Lawmakers rolled out a roughly $1.7 trillion year-end spending bill Dec. 20 to fund the U.S. government through most of 2023, tacking on proposals to extend telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities while leaving out other healthcare asks. Lawmakers have until the end of Dec. 23 to clear the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill or federal funds are […]
Among other spending allocations, Congress released an omnibus bill with provisions related to nursing homes and long-term care. The spending package calls for a “strategy for long-term care for aging veterans” and a study on the costs of serious mental illness, including in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. The bill, which Congress is expected to vote […]
The omnibus spending bill currently set before Congress includes provisions that would extend the waiver for recertification using telehealth through the end of 2024, among other items pertaining to hospice. Legislators have released the text of the more than 6,000-page bill that is intended to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2023. Congress is working to […]
Update: President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Dec. 29, 2022. Update: The bill passed both chambers of Congress and was sent to President Joe Biden as of Dec. 23, 2022. The year-end $1.7 trillion spending bill includes provisions to extend pandemic-era telehealth and hospital-at-home waivers for two years. The legislation, released Tuesday, aims to avert a government shutdown […]
The relative independence and health of senior living residents compared with other long-term care recipients likely affect the use of telehealth in independent living and assisted living communities, but an author of a new study tells McKnight’s Senior Living that opportunities exist for such communities to save money, increase resident satisfaction and improve care delivery to residents […]
