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 $1M each to continue to meet this demand and ensure that telehealth questions and issues can continue to be addressed.
To read the final letter, see below or click here.
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 provider capacity, supported patient access to after-hours care from their existing clinicians, and has been a determining factor in the decision of many health care practitioners to remain in the workforce.
Unfortunately, this policy is set to expire after December 31, 2024. The Alliance for Connected Care respectively requests that CMS consider making permanent its existing policy allowing a practitioner to bill from their in-person practice location.
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 to ensure that patients – both child and adult – are able to receive prescriptions to non-narcotic stimulants necessary for care through telehealth.
- Second, the Department of Justice made a major arrest related to the prescribing of Adderall over the internet.
So, what does this mean?
The letter to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) demonstrated the widespread agreement that telehealth is absolutely crucial for the ability of psychiatrists, pediatricians, mental health professionals, and patients to offer and receive treatment. They make it clear that there is no option to go back to a world in which these providers and patients have additional barriers to health care access.
The enforcement actions by DEA put an exclamation point on their previously shared concerns with stimulant prescribing. In our view, these actions demonstrate that “wild west” period of virtual care spawned in 2020 has come to a close. The actions show that regulators are closely scrutinizing the practices of organizations that stretched the traditional boundaries of health care and are now taking important steps to rein in those who may have overstepped.
Moving forward, we hope to see a rulemaking that focuses on the special registration process for telemedicine that is required by statute, but without the significant and burdensome in-person visit requirements that were featured in the previous proposed rule – and which would have cut many patients off from access to care.
As you might expect from the updates above, a major area of debate for this rulemaking will be around non-narcotic stimulants – which were heavily restricted by the previous proposed rule. It’s clear that access to these treatments through telehealth are needed by patients and medical providers. Its also now clear that the DEA has the will and enforcement capability to monitor this space and protect patients. With a special registration process in place, the DEA would have even more tools and capability to monitor prescribing and intervene when needed.
Will an answer as simple as registration and enforcement emerge in the proposed rule? It’s unlikely. We are eagerly awaiting the details of the proposal from DEA. Ideally one that listens to clinical voices, continues investigating potential bad actors, and – most importantly – ensures the lifeline of telehealth is not severed.
Join us in advocating for continued access to telehealth!
Mental Health Groups Sent Letter on Schedule IIN Non-Narcotic Prescribing
Mental Health Groups Sent Letter on Schedule IIN Non-Narcotic Prescribing
Mental health groups are pushing the agency to allow Schedule IIN non-narcotic drugs to be prescribed without an in-person visit. Those include stimulants used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
A coalition of mental health groups, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Kennedy Forum, wrote to the DEA on Tuesday, saying that not allowing such drugs to be prescribed without an in-person visit as it previously proposed would be a mistake.
The Alliance was pleased to support the effort around this letter.
Over 380 Clinicians Send Letter to DEA
Over 380 clinicians and practitioners signed a letter, requesting the DEA to issue a revised proposed rule to regulate the prescribing of controlled substances through telehealth as soon as possible to ensure adequate time for patients to continue existing care.
To read a full copy of the stakeholder letter, please click here.
Letter on House W&M Temporary Two-Year Extension
On behalf of the Alliance for Connected Care and the many patients and clinicians we represent, I am writing to share our appreciation for your leadership in advancing important telehealth access – building on the dynamic hearing this spring on care in the home. Most notably, we have supported the Committee’s actions to avert the coming telehealth cliff on December 31, 2024 – both through the advancement of commercial market telehealth last year and now with a two-year extension of Medicare telehealth access.
Alliance Submits Letter to AMA On Remote Monitoring
The Alliance for Connected Care sent a letter to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) CPT Editorial Panel in response to its May 2024 meeting agenda, which includes Tab 38 – Remote Monitoring.
The Alliance appreciates the consideration of stakeholder feedback into the revised proposal to ensure coding for remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) accurately and appropriately represents the clinical utilization of these services by clinicians and care teams.
Read the full letter here, or below.
Alliance Submits Statement for the Record for House Energy & Commerce Hearing on Telehealth Legislation
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a statement for the record to the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Health Subcommittee for the legislative hearing, “Legislative Proposals to Support Patient Access to Telehealth Services.”
The Alliance focused its comments on:
- The need for urgent action in extending Medicare telehealth provisions through December 31, 2024 to provide certainty around the future of telehealth.
- Endorsed telehealth legislation and urged the Subcommittee to advance bipartisan legislation.
- Several recommendations that Committee should consider to permanently expand access to telehealth.
- Recommendations for fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read the full letter here, or below.
Alliance Co-Leads Letter to DEA Urging Action on Telehealth Rule Crucial for Mental Health, Substance Use Disorders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stakeholders Send Letter to DEA Urging Action on Telehealth Rule Crucial for Mental Health, Substance Use Disorders
WASHINGTON, DC, APRIL 2, 2024 – The Alliance for Connected Care, American Telemedicine Association, ATA Action, the Consumer Technology Association, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, co-leading the effort, submitted a letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requesting the expedited release of a revised proposed rule to permit and regulate the prescribing of controlled substances through telehealth. The letter was signed by 214 stakeholders. Current flexibilities allowing for the remote prescribing of controlled substances are set to expire at the end of this year, necessitating regulatory action to ensure their continuation.
Stakeholders praised the DEA for their leadership and actions taken to ensure continued patient access to care be delivered through telemedicine in advance of the final telemedicine regulations expiring at the end of this year. The letter also urged DEA to propose the updated rules immediately for the following reasons:
- To ensure stakeholders have adequate time to provide feedback on any policy proposal.
- If DEA were to create a special registration process for telehealth prescribers, as proposed by DEA and many stakeholders, substantial operational lead-time would be needed to implement the new process and comply with other potential operational requirements and guardrails.
- A rulemaking late in the year that makes significant policy changes would affect the ability of patients and clinicians to make appointments and ensure consistent access to care.
- There will be operational staff training needs for pharmacies and other parts of the healthcare delivery system to ensure patients uninterrupted access to needed medical treatments offered through telehealth.
- DEA’s national leadership is needed to set a clear path forward for the nation and to encourage more consistent definitions and aligned requirements from state regulatory bodies – to encourage care in our most underserved areas, without geographic barriers limiting access to care.
To read a full copy of the stakeholder letter, please click here.