The AHA urged HHS and CMS to consider taking additional actions that would expand the ability of hospitals and health systems to use telehealth in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Among other actions, AHA urged the agencies to:

  • Allow HOPDs to bill for outpatient psychiatry programs delivered via telehealth so that behavioral health patients can continue to receive critical services;
  • Waive the remaining statutory restrictions on practitioners eligible to provide services via telehealth and allow them to provide telehealth services from their homes without updating their Medicare enrollment; and  
  • Allow critical access hospitals to directly bill for telehealth services and allow them to be paid according to the payment methodology they already have selected.

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