The Alliance for Connected Care aims to:
Demonstrate the importance of Connected Care as a tool for improved quality and efficiency.
Build significant and high-level support for Connected Care among leaders in Congress and the Administration.
Enable more telehealth to support new models of care.
Lift geographic and site restrictions for telehealth in Medicare.
Establish a consensus-based, standardized definition of Connected Care to advance with policymakers.
Alliance News
Telehealth and Outpatient Utilization: Trends in Evaluation and Management Visits Among Medicare Fee-For-Service Beneficiaries, 2019-2024
medRxiv: Telehealth and Outpatient Utilization: Trends in Evaluation and Management Visits Among Medicare Fee-For-Service Beneficiaries, 2019-2024 Prior to the pandemic, telehealth accounted for just 0.1% of monthly E&M visits but surged to 41.0% in April 2020 before stabilizing between 5.7% and 7.0% in 2023-2024. The average monthly E&M visit rate per 1,000 FFS beneficiaries was 906.8 pre-pandemic and 918.6 post-pandemic. In the post-pandemic period, telehealth comprised 1.2% of E&M visits in low-use specialties, 8.4% in medium-use specialties, and 43.8% in high-use specialties. Following an initial surge, telehealth use stabilized in 2021 and beyond. Overall outpatient utilization remained stable post-pandemic, [...]
Alliance Joins 300 Organizations to Make Permanent Telehealth for Employers
The Alliance for Connected Care joined more than 300 organizations to Congress urging immediate action on making permanent the telehealth flexibility allowing employers to offer telehealth below the deductible for those enrolled in a HDHP paired with an HSA. Read the full letter here or below:
350 Organizations Request Congress to Take Action on Telehealth in March
The Alliance for Connected Care co-led a letter, signed by almost 350 organizations, urging Congressional leadership to take action in March to establish permanent or long-term access to telehealth. Both patients and practitioners seek assurance that services will remain available. Enhanced access to telehealth services serves as a lifeline to patients across the country, allowing patients to access critical health care services even when they have barriers to accessing in-person care, such as weakened immune systems, transportation challenges, geographic distance, and more. Read the full letter here or below:
Over 150 Stakeholders Send Letter to DEA
The Alliance for Connected Care led a letter, signed by more than 150 organizations, to the Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting her leadership in maintaining the access to telehealth that President Trump initiated during his first term. More than 150 organizations have signed this letter, including business groups like the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and Consumer Technology Association, pharmacy experts like the American Pharmacists Association and American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists, mental health organizations like the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and Inseparable, health systems like Johns Hopkins and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and aging organizations like the [...]
Association Between Telehealth Use and Downstream 30-Day Medicare Spending
medRxiv: Association Between Telehealth Use and Downstream 30-Day Medicare Spending The objective of this study was to investigate whether healthcare visits initiated by telehealth had higher or lower 30-day spending compared to in-person-initiated visits. The study compared the overall spending, rates of return visits, laboratory tests, and imaging procedures within 30 days for Medicare fee-for-service patients who underwent in-person and telehealth evaluations between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022. Telehealth-initiated episodes of care were associated with lower 30-day Medicare spending and reduced utilization of labs and imaging. These findings suggest that telehealth, when used as a substitute for [...]