Health Information Compliance Alert
Bipartisan Efforts Continue to Extend Telehealth Coverage
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During the pandemic, the Medicare telehealth expansion allowed many providers to keep their doors open and help patients. A recently introduced bill suggests continuing that access past the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). Details: On Feb. 7, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) and Todd Young (R-Indiana) introduced the Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act; Senator Michael Bennett (D-Colorado) joined the bipartisan sponsorship of the bill on March 2. “The Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act would authorize the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to continue Medicare payments for a broad range of telehealth services, including for substance abuse treatment, for an additional two years beyond the Public Health Emergency,” notes a release on Sen. Bennett’s website. “The bill would also commission a study on the effect of the pandemic telehealth flexibilities in order to inform Congress’s work on how to make telehealth flexibilities permanent.” Reminder: The PHE was extended on Jan. 16 for an eighth time (see Health Information Compliance Alert, Vol. 22, No. 2). Read the details of the legislation at www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GOE22074.pdf. 
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Bipartisan Efforts Continue to Extend Telehealth Coverage
During the pandemic, the Medicare telehealth expansion allowed many providers to keep their doors open [...]