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House extends virtual care flexibilities beyond public health emergency

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

House of Representatives approved an omnibus spending bill late Wednesday night that extends temporary telehealth flexibilities under Medicare beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Senate, several COVID-19-era telehealth policies will remain in place for about five months after the public health emergency ends. WHY IT MATTERS.

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Congress Extends Flexible Telehealth Rules Past Official End of COVID Public Health Emergency

Healthcare IT Today

For some time now, special pandemic rules have been in effect which allowed providers to offer various forms of government-funded telehealth. However, if no action was taken to head this off, these rules were due to expire with the official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

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Bipartisan House bill proposes permanent telehealth benefits

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

The Telehealth Benefit Expansion for Workers Act would amend the Public Health Service Act, the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow employers to treat benefits for telehealth services like excepted benefits. In an announcement about the bipartisan bill, Rep.

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How we can avoid the 'telehealth cliff'

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

It's become common knowledge, at this point, that the flexibilities enabled by the federal government at the start of the COVID-19 public health emergency prompted an atmospheric jump in telehealth use. " The uncertainty about when the public health emergency will lift creates "a lot of anxiety," said Hayes.

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Billing Medicare and Private Payers for Telehealth Visits: What to Expect Post-Public Health Emergency

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

“The expansion of telehealth and the offering of new telehealth services that were not previously covered really enabled physicians to care for their patients in the midst of this crisis,” said Todd Askew, the AMA’s senior vice president of advocacy, during a recent “AMA COVID-19 Update. Provider Considerations.

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Senators push back on DEA proposed telehealth rules, say they'd affect patient care

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

and four of their colleagues expressed support for the Drug Enforcement Administration's new engagement on a potential special registration for telehealth with this week's listening sessions hosted by the DEA's Drug Diversion Control Division, but said they had several concerns. Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.

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Memorial Healthcare finds success with switch to Epic-based telehealth vendor

Healthcare IT News - Telehealth

billion in annual operating revenue, Memorial Healthcare System is one of the largest public health systems in the U.S. With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Memorial launched telehealth for all its primary care and specialty centers, and today conducts about 100,000 virtual visits per year.