The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet held a hearing today on “Advancing Telehealth Through Connectivity.” Witnesses all agreed that telehealth is helping to lower costs and improve outcomes for patients with limited access to medical services. “Right now, the greatest challenges lie in winning the federal level reimbursement parity that will make telehealth attractive in the marketplace and securing the reliable, high quality connectivity that telehealth requires,” said Kristi Henderson, chief telehealth and innovation officer for the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Chris Gibbons, M.D., associate director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and Distinguished Scholar in Residence for the Connect2Health Task Force at the Federal Communications Commission, said the task force is working to “shine a spotlight on what’s working and where the FCC, in collaboration with other federal and state stakeholders, can do more to help break down regulatory barriers.” AHA has urged Congress to modernize Medicare coverage and payment for telehealth. For more on the promise of telehealth for hospitals, health systems and their communities, see the recent AHA TrendWatch report.

Related News Articles

Headline
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response May 15 announced it is launching four pharmaceutical manufacturing projects using artificial…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information…
Headline
The AHA May 12 responded to the Office of Management and Budget's April 11 request for information on regulatory relief, making 100 suggestions to the Trump…
Headline
In this conversation, Aaron Lewandowski, M.D., emergency medicine physician and the emergency medicine stroke representative at Henry Ford West Bloomfield…
Headline
Cleveland Clinic's Eric Boose, M.D., family medicine physician and associate chief medical information officer and Rohit Chandra, executive vice president and…
Headline
The National Institutes of Health April 3 released a study that found an artificial intelligence screening tool was as effective as health care providers in…