The American Telemedicine Association this week sent a letter to congressional leaders requesting that they continue allowing telehealth and remote care services to be treated as an excepted benefit.  

"Without Congressional action, employers will be unable to offer basic virtual health services to millions of Americans in part-time and seasonal jobs or workers otherwise not participating in their employer’s full medical plan," read the letter, which was signed by dozens of business groups and industry representatives.

WHY IT MATTERS  

As the letter explained, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act considers employer-provided telehealth or remote care services to be a "group health plan."  

In turn, that classification triggers several mandates, which employers must comply with or face daily, per-violation fines. In practice, this means that employers are effectively prevented from offering telehealth benefits to anyone but full-time employees who elect coverage in their plan.  

But that has the potential to change, noted the business groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several federal agencies said they would stop enforcing mandates for employers who wanted to provide remote care services to workers ineligible for any other employer-sponsored group health plan.  

Given the temporary nature of that decision, the signers are asking Congress to permanently add telehealth and remote care services as excepted benefits, as other benefits (such as disability insurance and workers' compensation) already are.  

"Designating stand-alone telehealth and remote services as an excepted benefit would not affect an employer’s responsibility to offer minimum essential coverage to employees under the Affordable Care Act," read the letter.   

"Employers would not have the ability to swap out an employee’s full medical benefit for excepted stand-alone telehealth benefits, which are limited in scope and not considered a full medical plan," it continued.  

Signers included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Healthcare Leadership Council, Walmart, Teladoc Health and One Medical.  

THE LARGER TREND  

With the future of the COVID-19 pandemic – and, in turn, the future of COVID-19-era flexibilities –  uncertain, many advocacy groups have ramped up the pressure on policymakers to take permanent action on telehealth.

Earlier this week, hundreds of groups, including the ATA, asked state governors to extend state licensure flexibilities, citing the probable hurdles said regulations would likely pose for patients seeking virtual care.  

ON THE RECORD  

"The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the immense benefits of telehealth and remote care services. American workers want these benefits, and employers want to provide them," read this week's letter to congressional leaders.

"With temporary flexibilities that allowed employers to fill gaps in care set to expire, we urge you to consider making permanent the current policies that allow telehealth and remote care services to be treated as an excepted benefit," it continued.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.