Alliance Comments on the 21st Century Cures Initiative

The Alliance for Connected Care provided input into refining the goals of the 21^st Century Cures initiative.

The Alliance has a strong interest and member expertise in the way digital health technologies can support and expand access to care while improving patient engagement and quality. After four years of experiencing the benefits of expanded telehealth services, patients expect telehealth and remote patient monitoring as an option in their care treatment plans. We believe the Cures 2.0 effort has the potential to modernize an antiquated reimbursement system to better serve patients in need and realize the potential of digital technologies through better integration into care patterns.

To fully realize access to digital health technologies, several long-standing barriers should be focused on in the 21^st Century Cures initiative:

Permanent Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities
- Remove geographic and originating site limitations
- Remove distant site provider list restrictions
- Ensure Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) can furnish telehealth in Medicare
- Remove in-person requirements under Medicare for mental health services furnished through telehealth and telecommunications technology
- Drive better and more coordinated care for those with chronic disease by ensuring adequate reimbursement for remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology
Work with CMS to ensure providers rendering telehealth services from their home are able to offer services without reporting their home address on their Medicare enrollment or billing paperwork.
Encourage Additional Care Across State Lines
Decentralize Clinical Trials To Expand Opportunity For Research Into Underserved Communities