Policy Issue: Telehealth Flexibilities
Our Position
We must extend or make permanent flexibilities issued through legislation and regulatory waivers that enable hospice palliative care providers to offer needed care to Americans facing serious or life-limiting illness at home or wherever they call home.
Resources
- Telehealth One Pager
- Using Telehealth for Hospice Reauthorization Visits: Results of a Quality Improvement Analysis, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, September 2020
Current Legislation
- H.R.8261: Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act: Provides a two-year extension of telehealth flexibility for the face-to-face (F2F) encounter prior to recertification of hospice eligibility.
- H.R.7623 / S. 3967: Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024: This legislation ensures that seniors and rural patients who may not have internet connectivity can receive the care they need through audio-only telehealth services, in addition to allowing health centers and rural health clinics to provide telehealth services.
Previous Legislation
- 117th Congress (2021-2022): S. 1512: Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021: This legislation would expand coverage of Medicare telehealth services and make some COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities permanent, among other provisions.
- 117th Congress (2021-2022): S. 368: Telehealth Modernization Act : This legislation would remove Medicare’s “geographic and originating site” restrictions for telehealth and protects access to telehealth for patients in rural areas.
- 116th Congress (2019-2020): H.R.4932 / S.2741: Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2019: This legislation would expand the use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring services in Medicare, toward the goal of cost savings and quality care.
Activities
- September, 2024: Coalition Letter led by the National Alliance for Care at Home calling on House and Senate Leadership to continue to allow hospice providers to use telehealth for face-to-face (F2F) recertification visits. A coalition of 39 national and state organizations signed on to this letter.
- May, 2024: Letter in support of H.R.8261, the “Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act.” Specifically, NHPCO supported the bill’s provisions related to continued telehealth flexibility for the face-to-face (F2F) encounter prior to recertification of hospice eligibility. This bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee on May 8, 2024.
- January, 2024: Letter signed by 80 organizations serving rural and frontier communities highlighting challenges and concerns of hospice and palliative care providers. Telehealth and broadband access is a highlighted issue.
- October, 2023: Comments in response to Request for Information from the House Budget Committee titled “Solutions to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Federal Health Care Spending in the Budget.” Comments discussed the need for continued telehealth flexibilities in hospice care.
- September, 2022: Letter to Congress urging a requirement for CMS to implement more telehealth data collection and oversight.
- September, 2022: Letter to Senate Finance Committee calling for Congress to require CMS to create codes for telehealth visits on hospice claim forms.
- September, 2022: Coalition Letter to Senate leadership urging to extend or make permanent telehealth flexibilities provided due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have transformed access to healthcare for millions of Americans.
- February, 2022: Coalition Letter to House and Senate leadership urging Congress to extend or make permanent flexibility provided in the CARES Act that allows hospice organizations to perform eligibility recertification via telehealth.
- October 2021: Priority Issue for the Policy Update for Fall 2021.
- July, 2021: Policy Priority at Virtual Hill Day.
- February, 2021: Priority Issue for the Policy Update for Winter 2021.
- March, 2020: Priority Issue at Virtual Advocacy Week.