AHA Letter of Support for the Telehealth Modernization Act (H.R. 7623)

April 9, 2024

he Honorable Buddy Carter United States House of Representatives 2432 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515	The Honorable Lisa Blunt Rochester United States House of Representatives 724 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Greg Steube United States House of Representatives 2457 Rayburn House Office Building 2457 Rayburn House Office Building	The Honorable Terri Sewell United States House of Representatives 1035 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Mariannette Miller-Meeks United States House of Representatives 1034 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515	The Honorable Debbie Dingell United States House of Representatives 102 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Jefferson Van Drew United States House of Representatives 2447 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515	The Honorable Joseph Morelle United States House of Representatives 570 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representatives Carter, Blunt Rochester, Steube, Sewell, Miller-Meeks, Dingell, Van Drew and Morelle:

On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners — including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers — and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups, the American Hospital Association (AHA) writes in support of the Telehealth Modernization Act (H.R. 7623).

Telehealth provides a critical way for patients to access needed care. We greatly appreciate the telehealth waivers Congress granted during the public health emergency, as these flexibilities allowed hospitals and health systems to continue caring for patients and deliver mission-critical services. This legislation would remove originating and geographic site restrictions, which would allow patients to access telehealth from their homes and would support patients in both rural and urban areas. This legislation also would make permanent the ability of Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics to provide telehealth services and provide adequate reimbursement in those settings to ensure continued provision of virtual services. We appreciate that the bill would improve access to telehealth services by expanding the types of providers that can offer telehealth services, as well as the types of services covered by Medicare. Finally, this legislation would allow for provision of audio-only services which has provided a needed access point for patients with bandwidth constraints, lack data plans or devices to support video-based visits, or who otherwise are not able to participate in audio-visual encounters.

We appreciate your strong leadership on this important issue and look forward to working together to ensure passage of this legislation.

Sincerely,

/s/

Lisa Kidder Hrobsky
Senior Vice President
Advocacy and Political Affairs

Download the Letter PDF