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
The Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act
April 30, 2025 - Senators Marsha Blackburn, Mark Warner, and Representatives David Kustoff, Mark Pocan, Troy Balderson, and Don Davis introduced the Rural Patient Monitoring (RPM) Access Act, which would ensure Medicare patients in rural and underserved communities have access to remote physiologic monitoring services, which lower costs and improve access to care by using technology to collect and transmit patient health data to healthcare providers.
Alliance Sends CMS “Shovel-Ready” Digital Health Priorities
The Alliance congratulates Dr. Mehmet Oz on being confirmed as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We look forward to working with Dr. Oz in continuing the transformation of health care in the United States, through technology-enabled care that meets patients where they are and creates cost-saving efficiencies for the federal government. There are many antiquated restrictions on care that stand in the way of our technology-enabled future. Below, please find Alliance for Connected Care’s list of “shovel-ready” regulatory issues that CMS either has the authority to act on without Congressional action or that would [...]
Alliance Calls on DEA to Rescind or Revise Telemedicine Rule
The Alliance appreciates the DEA’s forward movement on telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances policy. However, the Alliance continues to be concerned to see language in the proposed rulemaking mandating in-person visits as this is not an appropriate guardrail for a telehealth service. Similarly, restricting the geography in which telemedicine can be offered undermines the value of creating virtual access for those patients who need it most. For these reasons, the Alliance encourages the Trump Administration to withdraw this proposal and work with stakeholders to ensure continued access to comprehensive medical care through telehealth, including when a controlled substance is required. [...]
Telehealth and Outpatient Utilization: Trends in Evaluation and Management Visits Among Medicare Fee-For-Service Beneficiaries, 2019-2024
medRxiv: Telehealth and Outpatient Utilization: Trends in Evaluation and Management Visits Among Medicare Fee-For-Service Beneficiaries, 2019-2024 Prior to the pandemic, telehealth accounted for just 0.1% of monthly E&M visits but surged to 41.0% in April 2020 before stabilizing between 5.7% and 7.0% in 2023-2024. The average monthly E&M visit rate per 1,000 FFS beneficiaries was 906.8 pre-pandemic and 918.6 post-pandemic. In the post-pandemic period, telehealth comprised 1.2% of E&M visits in low-use specialties, 8.4% in medium-use specialties, and 43.8% in high-use specialties. Following an initial surge, telehealth use stabilized in 2021 and beyond. Overall outpatient utilization remained stable post-pandemic, [...]