Alliance Leads Over 180 Organizations in Urging OMB and DEA to Extend Telehealth Prescribing Flexibilities
The Alliance for Connected Care led over 180 health care providers, innovators, and advocates in urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to advance a telemedicine regulation (RIN: 1117-ZA07) continuing access to prescribing through telehealth. Without action, these critical telemedicine authorities will expire on December 31, 2025; patients and providers are facing unacceptable uncertainty and the real risk of care disruptions. These flexibilities have been essential for maintaining continuity of care, particularly for those with mental and behavioral health needs, over the past five years.
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Open in new tab Alliance Statement – CMS INNOVATION CENTER ANNOUNCES ADVANCING CHRONIC CARE WITH EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE SOLUTIONS (ACCESS) MODEL
ALLIANCE STATEMENT
CMS INNOVATION CENTER ANNOUNCES TECH-ENABLED ADVANCING CHRONIC CARE WITH EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE SOLUTIONS (ACCESS) MODEL
DECEMBER 2025
The Alliance for Connected Care applauds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its announcement of the Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) Model. This outcome-aligned payment model represents meaningful progress toward a modernized Medicare program that empowers clinicians to use technology-enabled care for chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health.
For too long, antiquated regulatory and payment barriers have limited the ability of clinicians to deploy digital health tools, including remote monitoring and other tech-enabled care, even when those tools meet patients’ needs and improve outcomes. The ACCESS Model begins to remove these barriers by explicitly supporting flexible, tech-enabled care pathways.
This model aligns directly with what the Alliance advocated in our comments to the Health Technology Ecosystem RFI: healthcare delivery should be seamless across modalities and payment and practice requirements should be modernized to unlock the full potential of digital health. Providers should be able to choose the most clinically appropriate modality without being limited by fee-for-service billing constraints.
As the Medicare population continues to age, and clinician shortages worsen, the use of technology to manage patients with multiple chronic conditions or in high-risk post-acute circumstances are not just an imperative, they are a necessity. The Alliance believes that one key to scaling these services will be enabling technology to extend the capabilities of the clinician. Our current coding and reimbursement structures often stand in the way of this innovation.
The ACCESS model represents the kind of bold, forward-looking policy the Alliance has long advocated for. By compensating quality and outcomes rather than volume, ACCESS ensures patients and providers aren’t forced to weigh outdated regulatory or payment barriers when determining the best modality for care.
The Alliance believes the ACCESS Model is an important first step toward transforming how chronic care is delivered in Medicare and has the potential to become a national standard for technology-enabled, patient-centered care. We look forward to working with CMS to continue to expand access to highly efficient and patient-centric tech-enabled care.
Alliance Submits Statement to House Ways and Means Hearing on “Modernizing Care Coordination to Prevent and Treat Chronic Disease”
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a statement for the record for the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee’s hearing on “Modernizing Care Coordination to Prevent and Treat Chronic Disease”.
The Alliance highlighted the important role telehealth plays in improving health care and outcomes for people with chronic conditions. As such, the statement urges Congress to permanently extend Medicare telehealth flexibilities to ensure patients with chronic conditions can receive the high-quality, accessible, and coordinated care they need.
Read the full statement here or below:
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Alliance Leads 450 Stakeholders in Request for Long-Term Fix to Medicare Telehealth
The Alliance for Connected Care co-led a letter, urging federal policymakers to enact a long-term fix for telehealth coverage for Medicare.
Over 450 organizations spanning health care providers, digital health innovators, patient and provider advocacy organizations press Congress to immediately act on a long-term telehealth fix in its next legislative package to ensure stability and provide clarity for patients, providers and the health care system as a whole.
Congress has extended telehealth flexibilities multiple times immediately prior to the looming deadlines. Unfortunately, failure to do so this year has led to an abrupt end to telehealth services for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. This cycle of temporary fixes has resulted in patients and providers facing continued disruptions in care. Another short-term extension is unacceptable.
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Alliance Joins Letter In Support of the States Handling Access to Reciprocity for Employment (SHARE) Act of 2025
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 2025. 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.
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CMS ENDS KEY FLEXIBILITY ENABLING MORE AFTER-HOURS TELEHEALTH, ADDS NEW BURDENS ON CLINICANS
ALLIANCE STATEMENT
NOVEMBER 3, 2025
The Alliance for Connected Care is disappointed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes that will make it more difficult for a Medicare-enrolled practitioner to offer telehealth services from an alternative location. CMS plans to change billing rules, enabled by the Trump Administration in 2020, that allowed clinicians to be more available to their patients through telehealth when they are not in the office – such as after-hours telehealth visits from their homes.
For the past five years, CMS has allowed a telehealth practitioner to report and bill using their currently enrolled practice location even when offering a telehealth service from their home or another location. This policy helped reduce administrative complexity in Medicare billing and strengthened continuity of care by allowing patients to continue seeing their existing practitioners.
CMS did not renew this policy in the final CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule (page 172). If this change goes into effect in January 2026, many telehealth visits offered by practitioners from locations other than their enrolled billing location will end. Those who continue providing such care would need to separately enroll and bill for each location from which they deliver telehealth services. This is administratively difficult and will dramatically increase regulatory burden on both these practitioners and organizations with payment systems that are not designed to accommodate this reality.
While we appreciate CMS action to mitigate concerns about the release of clinicians’ home addresses, we believe privacy and clinician safety risks of unintended disclosure remain. Additionally, we believe the significant operational burden created by this policy has unfortunately been largely overlooked.
In a survey of Alliance members, it was estimated that this change will result in up to a fortyfold increase in the number of billing addresses tracked and reported to CMS by a health system. Multiple health systems estimated the resulting operational costs of this change at approximately $1 million in labor. CMS itself would also have significant operational costs related to the processing of additional documentation that would be submitted to the agency.
The Alliance shares CMS Administrator Oz’s vision for reducing administrative burden and empowering clinicians to focus on what matters most – caring for the patients they serve. We strongly support efforts to streamline regulations, simplify documentation requirements, and modernize federal policies that no longer reflect how care is delivered in today’s connected environment. This change is the antithesis of that vision and should be immediately corrected through sub-regulatory guidance.
For more on the Alliance’s work to advance access to comprehensive telehealth care, please visit https://connectwithcare.org/provider-location/.
Alliance Letter to Congressional Leadership Urging Retroactive Payment for Medicare Telehealth Services
The Alliance for Connected Care sent a letter to Congressional leadership, urging immediate action to clarify that retroactive payment will be offered for expanded telehealth services provided during the lapsed period due to the government shutdown.
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Alliance and 60 Organizations Letter to Congress Urging Urgent Action for Patient Access to Medicare Telehealth Services
The Alliance for Connected Care and 60 organizations, sent a letter to Congressional leadership, urging for immediate action to mitigate the negative impacts on Medicare beneficiaries as a result of the government shutdown and related lapse in Medicare telehealth flexibilities.
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Alliance Sends Letter to Governors Rural Health Transformation Fund
The Alliance for Connected Care sent a letter to Governors, highlighting an important opportunity to prioritize new and emerging technologies and data and technology-driven solutions that help rural providers furnish high-quality health care services.
The Alliance strongly encouraged States to consider:
- Support for state action to design and implement telehealth registry capabilities that enable more cross-border care;
- Support for rural hospitals to better leverage out-of-state specialists through telehealth to augment their community capabilities;
- Efforts to expand national clinical trial participation at rural hospitals;
- Facilitate the cross-border sharing of prescription data for safety, and/or
- Funding to leverage remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) services and empower patients to prevent and manage their chronic disease.
The ability for licensed, credentialed health care professionals to provide patient care across state lines via telehealth helped maintain continuity of care, promoted patient choice, helped address workforce shortages, and improved access and care coordination. Increased telehealth access across the country also helped improve patient access to primary and specialty care, boosted patient and caregiver engagement, reduced missed appointments, and improved post-operative care.
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Alliance for Connected Care Response to CY26 OPPS
The Alliance for Connected Care responded to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment proposed rule.
The Alliance urged CMS to recognize payment for genetic counselors providing care virtually, expand its proposal on virtual cardiac rehabilitation, and allow for outpatient reimbursement for RPM care management services. We believe these steps will improve the overall quality of care, lower costs, and improve the experience of Medicare beneficiaries.
Read the full letter here or below:
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