In a Monday letter, a group of 350 organizations urged Congress to make Covid-19 Medicare telehealth flexibilities permanent, which are set to expire in September. If Congress can’t make these flexibilities permanent, then they hope to see at least a two-year extension.
The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York). The signatories include the Alliance for Connected Care, the American Heart Association, the American Telemedicine Association, Amazon, Johns Hopkins University and Medicine and the National Health Council.
Before Covid-19, only a select few Medicare beneficiaries could access virtual care. They had to be in a rural setting, not an urban or suburban setting. They also could only use telehealth in an approved originating site, like a hospital or a physician’s office. These restrictions were waived during Covid-19 in order to expand access to care.
“Telehealth is a continuation of standing, bipartisan policy over the last five years and will not lead to new costs,” the organizations wrote in the letter. “Access to telehealth services serve as a lifeline to Medicare beneficiaries across the country, allowing patients to access critical health care services even when they have barriers to accessing in-person care, such as weakened immune systems, neurodegenerative disorders, and chronic conditions, which can make travel and in-person visits especially burdensome. Both patients and practitioners seek assurance that services will remain available, as they have for the past five years.”
They added that Congress needs to act “swiftly” to prevent the September expiration of these Medicare telehealth services, as continued access will support the healthcare system in several ways. For example, it will provide certainty for Medicare beneficiaries, who “will otherwise have to plan for the loss of access to clinicians and services they are using virtually.”
Stopping the expiration of the flexibilities will also reduce the burden on healthcare workers by allowing more clinicians to provide care virtually.
In addition, it will “encourage ongoing investment in the technology tools and infrastructure to offer telehealth services, particularly for smaller providers serving rural and underserved communities – who cannot afford to invest in these tools without an ensured reimbursement pathway,” the letter stated.
Some of these organizations — including the Alliance for Connected Care and the American Telemedicine Association — also recently sent a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration, calling on the agency to continue the remote prescribing of controlled substances. This was also introduced during Covid-19 and is set to expire at the end of the year.
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