Historical policy context (November 2026): This article reports on the American Telemedicine Association’s April 2011 requests concerning proposed Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) rules. CMS published the proposed rule on April 7, 2011 and the final rule on November 2, 2011, which took effect January 3, 2012. The five items below describe the association’s historical requests, not current Medicare telehealth coverage or ACO requirements. For current information, consult the CMS Shared Savings Program overview.

As reported by iHealthBeat on Tuesday, April 26, 2011:

The American Telemedicine Association is asking CMS to waive certain Medicare telehealth regulations in the recently proposed rules governing accountable care organizations, Modern Physician reports.

In a letter to CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, the association said CMS’ proposed ACO regulations included “restriction-riddled” telehealth rules, which among other things would not allow Medicare reimbursement for more than 12 telehealth-aided services, including analysis of computer-based clinical data and hospital discharge services (Carlson, Modern Physician, 4/25).

The association proposed five changes to the rules that would allow:

Videoconferencing services for the 35 million Medicare beneficiaries living in metropolitan areas;
Medical images to be stored and forwarded for beneficiaries who reside outside Alaska or Hawaii;
Physicians to judge when use of telehealth is appropriate;
Home-based videoconferencing services; and
Therapy services otherwise covered under Medicare to be delivered via telehealth services (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 4/26).

Telemedicine Group Asks CMS to Make Changes to Accountable Care Rules

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