Telehealth
CMS Releases Updated Medicaid & CHIP Telehealth Toolkit, Includes State Best Practices and Behavioral Health Strategies
February 15, 2024 Anne Dwyer This month, CMS released an updated State Medicaid and CHIP Telehealth Toolkit consolidating information from previous toolkits and providing additional guidance – as required by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – on issues from billing best practices to strategies for using telehealth in schools. In addition to FAQs on issues such as benefit flexibility, financing, […]
The Promise of Technology to Solve for Healthcare’s Most Pressing Challenges
Hospitals across the nation are facing financial constraints and unprecedented staffing shortages. This situation is compounded by the growing need to provide skilled, resource-intensive care for sicker patients being admitted to hospitals’ general care units. This situation is not only impacting clinical staff, who are overworked, stretched thin and reporting high levels of burnout, but […]
Next Generation of Healthcare: How Remote Patient Monitoring & Telehealth are Revolutionizing Healthcare
The next generation of healthcare will have a face that will likely be much different than anything seen before. The push to rapid innovation, especially in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in solutions that provided new outlook in the way healthcare is supervised. As all the industries adjusted to working remotely, healthcare has been more benefitted […]
CMS Finalizes Rules Impacting RHCs Effective January 2024
In November 2023, CMS issued final rules for the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and the 2024 Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). Both of these rules contained finalized policy proposals that will impact rural health clinics (RHCs) beginning in January 2024: Telehealth Flexibilities CMS has officially extended some telehealth flexibilities that were allowed […]
2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Extends Telehealth Flexibilities
The 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this month, extended certain telehealth-related flexibilities that were implemented during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS issued a Fact Sheet summarizing the telehealth updates, as well as other important Medicare policy changes. Until 2020, Medicare reimbursed […]
Final CY 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Extends Many Telehealth Flexibilities Through 2024
Changes to the Medicare Telehealth Services List Structure and Updates Process Prior to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluated changes to the Medicare Telehealth Services List (the List) through an annual rulemaking process. Through this process, CMS considered whether a service met one of two criteria […]
Senate Subcommittee Examines Making Medicare Telehealth Coverage Permanent
In a letter submitted to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health for a hearing Nov. 14, the AHA expressed support for the CONNECT Act (S.2016/H.R. 4189) and urged Congress to allow Medicare beneficiaries to access telehealth services wherever they and their providers are and allow rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and critical access hospitals to serve as […]
AHA-Supported Bill Would Expand Access to Telehealth Services
AHA on Oct. 10 voiced support for the CONNECT for Health Act (S. 2016/H.R. 4189), legislation that would increase patient access to telehealth services while removing barriers to adoption. The bill would permanently remove geographic restrictions that limit where patients can access telehealth, add homes and other clinically appropriate originating sites, and allow rural health […]
AMERICAN TELEMEDICINE ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES THREE NEW TOOLS TO ADVANCE TELEHEALTH’S ROLE IN ADDRESSING HEALTH DISPARITIES
Washington, D.C., September 18, 2023 – The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) announced this week that its CEO’s Advisory Group on Using Telehealth to Eliminate Disparities and Inequities is releasing three new tools this week, to inform ways in which telehealth can impact disparities and inequities. “We launched the advisory group in 2021 to address the unique ways telehealth could be […]
The Comments are In! Responses to the Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Reg
Time’s up and pencils down! Comments on the calendar year (CY) 2024 physician fee schedule (PFS) proposed reg were due earlier this week. Now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will have to review them and issue a final reg on or before November 1, 2023—60 days before the start of the new […]
HIMSS Supports Proposed Extensions to Telehealth Coverage in CMS Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule
HIMSS, a global advocate for digital health transformation, supports a proposed extension of coverage for telehealth services through Dec. 31, 2024. The reimbursement, at the non-facility rate, was originally scheduled to cease when the federal government ended the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, 2023. More than 150 million people live in federally designated […]
