Alliance Urges HHS to Prioritize Telehealth in SUD Care
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted comments to HHS’s request for comments on policy priorities to advance care for substance use disorder (SUD) under the Great American Recovery Initiative. Telehealth is uniquely equipped to expand and scale behavioral health care, especially for prevention and treatment. The Alliance urged HHS to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration to make permanent flexibilities that allow telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances (like medication for opioid use disorder); current flexibilities end on December 31, 2026, putting patient care and safety at risk.
Read the full comments here or below:
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Open in new tab Alliance Submits Statement to House Education and Workforce Markup of SHARE Act
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a statement to the House Committee on Education and Workforce urging members to advance the bipartisan SHARE Act (H.R. 2332) during the Committee’s full committee markup. The SHARE Act would clarify state licensing agencies’ authority to access FBI criminal history records for background checks under interstate occupational licensing compacts, removing a persistent bottleneck that delays multistate licensure, weakens telehealth networks, and ultimately limits patient access to care.
Read the full statement here or below:
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Alliance Joins Letter In Support of the States Handling Access to Reciprocity for Employment (SHARE) Act of 2026
The Alliance for Connected Care joined over 35 organizations in a stakeholder letter supporting the States Handling Access to Reciprocity for Employment (SHARE) Act of 2026. The bill would authorize states to access the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) criminal history records for professional licensing under interstate compacts to overcome current challenges and facilitate seamless and efficient background checks for multistate or reciprocal licenses.
Read the letter here or below:
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The Alliance Signals Support of Illinois Nurse Licensure Compact
The Alliance for Connected Care is in strong support of HB 4369, which would bring Illinois into the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC). This legislation is crucial to Illinois’ continued leadership on health care.
Enacting HB 4369 would bring to fruition Illinois’s commitment to expanding access to care. As part of Illinois’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the state committed to joining the NLC. That federal funding is at risk if Illinois does not enact NLC legislation by December 31, 2027. The General Assembly has a direct opportunity to protect its rural health care funding by passing this bill.
The Alliance believes NLC participation should be viewed as the essential foundation, but not the ceiling, for a state committed to expanding access through telehealth. After passing HB 4369, Illinois should consider adopting the Uniform Telehealth Act (UTA) model legislation developed by the Uniform Law Commission.
Read the full comments here or below:
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Alliance Joins 100+ Organizations Urging Congress to Preserve Opioid Treatment Program Rules
The Alliance for Connected Care joined more than 100 organizations in signing a letter to the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, opposing H.R. 5629, which would repeal the 2024 Final Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) Rules, and H.R. 5630, which would impose additional reporting requirements on block grant grantees.
Early evidence shows that telehealth flexibilities codified in the Rules are expanding treatment access, which has contributed to a record 25 percent single-year decline in overdose deaths. The letter calls on Congress to direct agencies to study implementation before pursuing any modifications.
Read the full letter here or below:
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Launch of the National Telehealth Voters Pledge
Organizations commit to organize and educate voters nationwide during fall elections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2026 – A growing coalition of healthcare, technology, and patient advocacy organizations today launched the Telehealth Voters Pledge with the support of the Alliance for Connected Care. The pledge marks a commitment to educating voters about the importance of permanent telehealth policy, and a challenge for other organizations to follow suit as the 2026 federal elections approach.
“Each federal election is a referendum on policy, and our voice must continue to be heard clearly,” said Chris Adamec, Executive Director of the Alliance for Connected Care. “This pledge will serve as the foundation for an ongoing, collaborative effort to support permanent telehealth policies and end the ongoing risk of America’s seniors losing access to care.”
Through avenues appropriate to each pledgee, leaders will commit to generate new momentum to replace temporary telehealth authorities with permanent policies that guarantee access for older adults across the nation. These actions include:
- Cooperation and collaboration to ensure telehealth policies are raised in town halls, debates, public and private forums across the nation.
- Engaging constituencies to provide education about the importance of telehealth policy and support individuals in their issue-oriented engagement with policymakers.
- Sharing information valuable to the broader policy advocacy effort, including patient stories (and harmful effects of the 2025 lapse), data and clinical outcomes, and illustrative examples demonstrating the economic and societal value of telehealth.
As part of the broader movement, signing organizations will deliver this pledge to Congressional leaders in July 2026, join national media efforts, and collaborate with the full coalition on shared resources, talking points, and advocacy strategies. The pledge clarifies that these activities will be undertaken in a nonpartisan fashion, as part of a commitment to public education and civic engagement on a critical health policy issue.
“Permanent Medicare telehealth policy is essential to protecting access to timely, high-quality care for America’s seniors, and we are committed to educating voters and policymakers about the need to move beyond temporary extensions and create lasting statutory authority for telehealth in 2026” said Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS, Medical Director of Virtual Care at University of Michigan Health.
“It is time for permanent Medicare telehealth policy that protects access for older adults across the U.S. and reduces uncertainty for patients and providers alike. I’m proud that CVS Health has supported these flexibilities since the pandemic – we see every day how virtual care can remove barriers to getting help. Our MinuteClinic virtual care services, including mental health support, make it easier for all patients to get the care they need in ways that fit their lives,” said Jon Thiboutot, President, Retail Health, CVS Health.
“Telehealth isn’t a convenience, it’s infrastructure. In skilled nursing and long-term care, virtual clinical access is often the difference between a resident being stabilized in their bed at 2 a.m. or being shipped to an ED for a condition that could have been managed on-site. Permanent telehealth access isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a basic question of whether we believe frail elders and rural Americans deserve the same standard of care as everyone else” said Mordy Eisenberg, Co-Founder of Tapestry Health. “We are proud to stand with the Alliance for Connected Care in urging every candidate in 2026 to commit to making these protections permanent.”
“Nearly one in every four Americans, approximately 60 million people, experience a mental illness annually, and right now, there is only one mental health provider for every 340 people in the U.S.,” said ABHW President and CEO Debbie Witchey. “Allowing permanent Medicare telehealth services and repealing the mental health services in-person requirement will protect access to care and ensure individuals start or continue their care without disruption.”
“Compassion & Choices is committed to advocating for making Medicare telehealth coverage permanent, said Bernadette Nunley, Chief Legal Advocacy Officer. This access is important for ensuring that our constituencies are able to routinely check in with their clinicians without the burden of leaving home. Telehealth has been shown to expand access to palliative care specialists, hospice consultations, and symptom management, which is especially important for folks at end-of-life. Telehealth also makes the completion and periodic updating of advance care plans easier and therefore more likely.”
Learn more about how to join the pledge – and engage in this advocacy throughout 2026 at connectwithcare.org/pledge/
Alliance Supports Chronic Care Management Co-Pay Removal Bill
The Alliance for Connected Care, alongside 40 organizations and the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), endorsed the Chronic Care Management Improvement Act of 2026. The bill, introduced by Rep. DelBene (D-WA) and Kelly (R-PA), would remove Medicare beneficiaries’ cost-sharing responsibilities for chronic care management services. By eliminating the current 20 percent co-payment, the Chronic Care Management Improvement Act removes a barrier to services critical for continuity of care especially in the provision of virtual care.
Read the full letter here or below:
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Alliance Submits Statement to House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Hearing on “Policies to Protect Our Communities from Illicit Drug Threats”
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a statement for the record for the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee’s hearing on “Policies to Protect Our Communities from Illicit Drug Threats”.
The Alliance highlighted the important role telehealth plays in treatment for substance use disorder, especially in the prescribing of controlled substances and medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). As such, the statement urges Congress to engage with DEA on a patient-centered special registration framework that maintains comprehensive access to telemedicine prescribing, ensuring continuity of appropriate care.
Read the full statement here or below:
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Alliance Requests Congress Work With CMS on Telehealth Modifiers
The Alliance sent a letter to Congressional Committees of Jurisdiction on the implementation of telehealth modifiers. In the most recent extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities, Congress mandated that CMS implement two telehealth modifiers. The Alliance requests Congress work closely with CMS to ensure it does not create overly burdensome restrictions as it implements new telehealth modifier policies created by Congress.
Read the full letter or below:
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Alliance for Connected Care Calls on CMS to Modernize Telehealth Policy and Expand Access to Virtual Care
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a letter to CMS urging additional regulatory changes to digital health rules in the Physician Fee Schedule, ensuring patients and providers alike have access to health care where and when they need it. In our advocacy for a more connected health care system, the Alliance calls on CMS to:
- Ensure the new statutory telehealth modifiers do not create burdensome requirements, clearly define the term “virtual platform”, and establish a clear exemption list within its definition of clinicians offering care through a “virtual platform.”
- Ensure that telehealth practitioners working solely from a home-based location do not need to report their private residence to the federal government for purposes of enrollment or billing. We respectfully request that CMS, as part of its policymaking in this area, convene a roundtable or a similar effort to ensure the experiences of virtual-only practitioners are considered.
- Recognize AI-enabled care as an extension of existing medical services and align reimbursement with clinical outcomes and medical decision-making rather than rigid time-based requirements. One way would be through enablement of innovative “regulatory sandboxes” that create AI regulatory relief pathways that allow for temporary exemptions from regulation, subject to rigorous due diligence, safety constraints, and narrowly scoped use cases at the state and federal level.
- Build on recent progress supporting remote patient monitoring (RPM) by modernizing practice expense valuation for digital tools, expanding clinical use cases, and supporting technology investments that improve chronic disease management.
- Provide greater flexibility for teaching physicians to bill based on how they interact with the patient and the key and critical elements they personally perform and should provide location flexibility for clinical teams.
- Modernize interprofessional consultations by removing outdated time thresholds and supporting secure digital collaboration among clinicians to improve care coordination.
- Advance outcome-oriented care models such as APCM and ACCESS that reward longitudinal care management, technology-enabled services, and measurable improvements in patient outcomes.
- Create an additional billing pathway, such as incident-to billing, in Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) to allow primary care providers to oversee delivery of MDPP services furnished by CDC-recognized suppliers.
- Promote interstate care and reduce licensure barriers that limit providers’ ability to deliver telehealth services across state lines and exacerbate workforce shortages.
- Continue working with Congress to ensure permanent Medicare telehealth access, including maintaining coverage for audio-only services and ensuring a broad range of clinicians can deliver virtual care.
Read the full letter here or below:
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