Digital
. 4 MIN READ
By Tanya Albert Henry , Contributing News Writer
AMA News Wire
Bill to extend telehealth flexibilities clears House committee
Aug 15, 2024
There’s movement in Congress to further extend the regulatory flexibilities initiated as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that have allowed telehealth to become more widespread in medicine.
Bipartisan legislation that would extend existing telehealth flexibilities for two years beyond their current end-of-2024 expiration date saw its first substantive step toward becoming law when the House Ways and Means Committee in May unanimously passed the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital and Ambulance Access Act (H.R. 8261).
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The AMA strongly supports the legislation that Reps. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and Mike Thompson (D- Calif.) introduced, as Medicare patients and physicians alike have come to rely on being able to use telehealth as a routine part of care.
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Learn more about the future of telehealth services and the benefits of telemedicine in this recent episode of “AMA Moving Medicine” featuring Dana Lichtenberg, assistant director for congressional affairs at the AMA.
Congress extended key telehealth flexibilities through 2024 when it passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act,2023. Here are three key regulatory flexibilities the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act would extend through 2026:
- The exemption to the geographic and originating site restrictions so that urban, suburban and rural Medicare patients can continue to receive telehealth services rather than have to travel to a brick-and-mortar health care facility.
- Flexibilities that allow all Medicare beneficiaries to receive telehealth services inside the home or at any other site where they access a telecommunications system.
- A moratorium on the requirement for an in-person visit within six months of the beneficiary receiving their first telemental health service.
- Authority to provide audio-only telehealth services.
The bill also would extend Acute Hospital at Home Waiver flexibilities through 2029, a separate policy the AMA strongly supports.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also passed its own short-term telehealth extension bill in May. The original version of H.R. 7623, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024—introduced by Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.)—sought to permanently extend telehealth flexibilities for physicians and other health care providers.
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However, the committee ultimately passed an amendment(PDF) that would only continue the same virtual care and hospital-at-home flexibilities for an additional two years. The cost of a permanent extension combined with a desire to remain consistent with legislation that already advanced through the Ways and Means Committee likely contributed to the Energy and Commerce Committee’s amending the original structure of H.R. 7623.
The AMA’s ultimate goal, however, remains for the COVID-19-era flexibilities to be “made permanent to facilitate greater long-term investment in virtual care for the betterment of patients,” AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote in a letter (PDF) to the chair and ranking member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. “This legislation is pivotal in ensuring the continuation of essential telehealth services for the foreseeable future that have greatly enhanced health care access.”
Since it is unlikely that legislation making current telehealth flexibilities permanent will be passed during this session of Congress, the letter instead urges “swift passage” of H.R. 8261.
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“Given that we are in the middle of a national physician workforce crisis, telehealth continues to provide critical access for patients across the country in various settings,” Dr. Madara wrote. “By extending these critical telehealth flexibilities, Congress is taking significant steps to ensure that our health care system remains adaptive and responsive to the needs of all Americans.”
Learn with the AMA about seven ways telehealth is reshaping medicine for the better.
Legislative prospects
The AMA has consistently pressed the 118th Congress to not let the telehealth extensions expire at year’s end and it strongly supports two bipartisan bills that would permanently extend the three key policies that have allowed for expanded telehealth.
In addition to the original version of the Telehealth Modernization Act, the AMA strongly supports the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2023 (H.R. 4189; S. 2016), led by Reps. Schweikert and Thompson. The CONNECT Act has 49 House and 65 Senate cosponsors.
In the Senate, action on telehealth is strongly anticipated at some point in the Senate Finance Committee before the Dec. 31, 2024, expiration date.
Sparsely used before the pandemic,74% of physicians now work in practices that offer telehealth.
VisitAMA Advocacy in Actionto find out what’s at stake insupporting telehealthand other advocacy priorities the AMA is actively working on.
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