Our Members
The Alliance for Connected Care aims to:
Demonstrate the importance of Connected Care as a tool for improved quality and efficiency.
Build significant and high-level support for Connected Care among leaders in Congress and the Administration.
Enable more telehealth to support new models of care.
Lift geographic and site restrictions for telehealth in Medicare.
Establish a consensus-based, standardized definition of Connected Care to advance with policymakers.
Alliance News
Alliance Wins in the Proposed Medicare Fee Schedule
Alliance Wins in the Proposed Medicare Fee Schedule July 11, 2024 While CMS does not currently have statutory authority to waive geographic and originating site restrictions for telehealth, it has proposed a number of important steps to preserve access to telehealth in the CY2025 Physician Fee Schedule. Extension of provider location reporting flexibility: Proposed continuation of current policy through 2026 allowing a distant site practitioner to use their currently enrolled practice location instead of their home address when providing telehealth services from their home. The Alliance has aggressively advocated for permanent change, most recently in a June letter to CMS. Permanent authority for audio-only: [...]
Alliance Leads Letter to Congressional Appropriators to Support Telehealth Resource Centers FY 2025
The Alliance for Connected Care led a letter asking Congressional Appropriators to include a $14 million request for the Telehealth Resource Centers (TRC) program at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in FY2025 appropriations.This increase in funding would provide a critical boost to the TRCs, which saw an 800% increase in demand for telehealth assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-pandemic, demand for telehealth technical assistance remains high, with TRCs experiencing a 400% increase compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. The TRCs need at least $14M in funding in FY25 to ensure that each TRC (regional and national) can receive at least [...]
Alliance Requests CMS to Consider Administrative Burden on Telehealth Practitioners
The Alliance for Connected Care sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding ongoing decisions by CMS that will dramatically increase administrative burden for both practitioners offering telehealth services and CMS itself through the requirements for the reporting of multiple addresses for a clinician offering telehealth. CMS currently allows telehealth practitioners who offer a telehealth service from their home or another location to report the location in which they can offer in-person care on their billing forms. This continuity in the billing of services while offering more flexible care has enabled telehealth to expand [...]
Letter on House E&C Temporary Two-Year Extension
On behalf of the Alliance for Connected Care and the many patients and clinicians we represent, we write to support the Committee’s leadership in working to avert a pending telehealth cliff for Medicare beneficiaries and support bipartisan passage of the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 (H.R.7623). The Alliance for Connected Care sent a letter to House Energy & Commerce Committee leadership in support of averting a pending telehealth cliff for Medicare beneficiaries.
Finally – Action on Prescribing Through Telehealth
Last week, we finally saw a proposed rule – “Telemedicine Prescribing of Controlled Substances When the Practitioner and the Patient Have not had a Prior In-Person Medical Evaluation” arrive at OMB. We expect that this proposed rule will avert the current end of telehealth prescribing flexibility on December 31, 2024. However, there remains significant risk of patients losing access to care due to the rulemaking. We also saw two major policy developments in this space last week, outlining the opportunities and risks for telehealth access. First - our nation’s foremost medical societies and behavioral health voices called on the Administration [...]