Building off of the transformation of telehealth access since 2020, the Alliance has continued to drive the advocacy steps needed for permanent telehealth expansion. We are excited to successfully hold on to important expansions and continue progress in 2023. Alliance Top Accomplishments 1 A temporary two-year extension of all Medicare telehealth in the fiscal [...]
On December 1, 2022, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee issued a report on telehealth use and program integrity risks across selected health care programs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the debate on Capitol Hill about the permanent flexibilities in the Medicare program, we focus here on Medicare fee-for-service and [...]
Alliance and Others Send Letter to DEA to Advance Proposed Rules on the Special Registration Telemedicine The Alliance for Connected Care and more than 300 participants sent a letter urging the DEA to advance the proposed rules on the Special Registration for Telemedicine under the Ryan Haight Act to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). [...]
On November 1, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Calendar Year (CY) 2023 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule. The rule updates payment rates and finalize policy changes effective January 1, 2023. See the Press Release, Fact Sheet, Fact Sheet (MSSP), and the Final Rule. General CMS finalized [...]
Fall 2022 The Alliance for Connected Care commissioned an independent Medicare claims data analysis to better understand telehealth utilization and the potential financial impact of long-term telehealth expansion on the Medicare program. As expected, the findings of this analysis align with the individual experiences and data collected by Alliance for Connected Care members. [...]
SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 – Board Members of the Alliance for Connected Care conducted a government-funded study to determine whether there was an increase in primary care utilization with the expanded availability of telehealth across three health care systems. Using a grant from the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), data was [...]
Washington, DC, September 13, 2022 – Today, an astounding 375 organizations sent a joint letter to bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate urging action on telehealth legislation this fall. Policy certainty beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) is essential to continuing access to telehealth for both Medicare and commercial market patients. The letter [...]
September 7, 2022, Washington, D.C. - The only way to truly understand the impact of covering telehealth in Medicare on fraud is the analysis of real data. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) continues to do just that, and we applaud their efforts. These reports add to the growing body of [...]
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted comments on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule for calendar year (CY) 2023, which includes several important reforms with respect to telehealth. The Alliance emphasized the following overarching priorities: While we appreciate and support the effort from CMS to create more temporary Category 3 codes [...]
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted comments in response to the request for information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. The Alliance specifically commented on the role that telehealth has played in providing access to care in the MA program and key policy considerations [...]