The COVID-19 Telehealth Expansion Bills Are Starting to Pile Up

Senator Lamar Alexander has added another telehealth bill to the rapidly growing list of efforts to expand connected health coverage in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tennessee Republican and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this week introduced the Telehealth Modernization Act (S. 4375), which aims to make permanent several telehealth coverage proposals being considered on Capitol Hill and included in other bills recently introduced.

According to Alexander, his bill would:

1. Remove geographic and originating site restrictions from Medicare coverage of telehealth services;
2. Ensure that telehealth services at federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) are covered by Medicare;
3. Give the Health and Human Services Secretary the authority to permanently expand the types of telehealth services covered by Medicare (the list now stands at 135) and the types of care providers who able to deliver those services; and
4. Enable Medicare to cover more telehealth services used for hospice and home dialysis care.

Those changes were included in temporary federal policy changes that have been enacted in the past few months to help care providers expand telehealth and mHealth use to deal with the COVID-19 emergency. Most of those changes are set to expire when the public health emergency ends – a date recently pushed to mid-October by HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

They’re also included in lobbying efforts by more than 340 providers, telehealth vendors and other telehealth advocates and a task force organized by the American Telemedicine Association, Alliance for Connected Care and NCQA to keep telehealth momentum going after the pandemic.

In a press release, Alexander said his bill would part of a three-pronged approach to improving the healthcare landscape. He also called for Congress to pass the CONNECT for Health Act, a bill introduced (for a third time) in October 2019 that aims to expand Medicare coverage for telehealth, and the COVID-19 HEALS Act, the latest coronavirus relief package introduced this week – and one which is expected to face a lot of debate and changes before both sides can comes to an agreement.

He said his bill comes out of a June 17 hearing in which the Senate health committee asked healthcare experts about the 31 temporary policy changes made to expand telehealth coverage.

“The best result for the American people would be for Congress to approve all three steps - the changes in the HEALS Act, the CONNECT for Health Act, and my legislation - in the NEXT COVID-19 package so we don’t miss the opportunity to support and encourage one of the most important changes in the delivery of medical services ever,” he argued.

He faces a crowded docket of similar efforts, including three telehealth bills introduced last week alone. The list includes:

• The COVID-19 Telehealth Program Extension Act, which aims to give the now-shuttered COVID-19 Telehealth Program another $200 million to allow the Federal Communications Commission to fund more telehealth programs;
• The COVID-19 Emergency Telehealth Impact Reporting Act of 2020 (HR 7695), the KEEP Telehealth Options Act and the Evaluating Disparities and Outcomes of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Emergency Act of 2020 (HR 7078), both of which call on the HHS to collect data on telehealth use during the pandemic for an in-depth study on its effectiveness;
• The Telehealth Expansion Act of 2020 (S 4230), the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, and the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act, all of which aim to make permanent certain telehealth freedoms enacted during the pandemic;
• The Equal Access to Care Act, which would allow care providers to use telehealth in any state to treat patients in any location for up to 180 days after the end of the COVID-19 emergency;
• The Helping to Ensure Access to Local telehealth (HEALTH) Act of 2020, which focuses on extending telehealth coverage to FQHCs and RHCs; and
• The Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services (TREATS) Act, which focuses on expanding telehealth coverage for substance abuse treatment.