Cheney, Dingell Launch Bipartisan Effort to Codify COVID-19 Telehealth Waivers

US Reps Liz Cheney and Debbie Dingell are jumping onto the telehealth policy bandwagon with a bill aimed at permanently extending key waivers introduced during the pandemic.

Cheney, a Republican representing Wyoming, and Dingell, a Democrat representing Michigan, are touting the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act of 2021 as a bipartisan effort to “codify critical telehealth policies implemented during the pandemic.” Cheney introduced a similar bill in June 2020, but had only Republic co-sponsors then, and the bill failed to advance.

As with the previous bill, this bill tackles some of the most noteworthy waivers introduced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over the past year and a half to expand telehealth coverage and access during the coronavirus pandemic. Cheney and Dingell want to make sure those freedoms continue after the public health emergency has ended.

“This bill will allow Americans to utilize telehealth services even after the emergency declaration has ended,” Cheney said in a press release. “COVID-19 presented unprecedented challenges, including the facilitation of a safe environment for our seniors to receive high quality health care. Fortunately, Congress was able to remove many of the barriers that prevented seniors from utilizing telehealth services from the comfort and safety of their homes. As a result, telehealth use among seniors has continued to rise and this legislation would continue this successful trend well after the pandemic is over by permanently cutting burdensome red tape, while allowing Medicare to adapt to the ever-changing innovation in medical technology.”

Specifically, the bill would eliminate geographical restrictions on Medicare coverage for telehealth services, allowing providers to care for patients in, for example, their homes. It would also expand Medicare coverage to include audio-only telehealth (such as the landline telephone) in certain circumstances, and it would extend coverage for telehealth services at federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs).

Also, the bill would allow the Health and Human Services Secretary to expand the list of healthcare providers able to use telehealth, and it would clarify fraud and abuse laws to give providers more leeway to use telehealth and remote patient monitoring platforms.

The bill joins several others already before Congress, and each provision outlined in this bill is included in some form or another in other bills. Cheney and Dingell are hoping that name recognition will stir up some support for their bill, as well as endorsements from the American Medical Association and the Connected Health Initiative.

The lawmakers may be hoping that an emphasis on bipartisanship will help at a time when Congress is facing increasing pressure to enact long-term telehealth policy.