In a letter submitted to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health for a hearing Nov. 14, the AHA expressed support for the CONNECT Act (S.2016/H.R. 4189) and urged Congress to allow Medicare beneficiaries to access telehealth services wherever they and their providers are and allow rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and critical access hospitals to serve as distance sites. AHA also encouraged Congress to: expand eligible telehealth providers to include occupational and physical therapists, speech-language pathologists and audiologists; no longer require beneficiaries to receive an in-person evaluation six months before and annually after initiating behavioral telehealth treatment; explicitly cover audio-only services; allow providers to use telehealth services to recertify hospice patients; and streamline licensure requirements for providers operating across state lines.
 
Testifying at the hearing were representatives from: the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center; University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of Michigan; and Harvard Medical School.

Related News Articles

Headline
States have until Sept. 30 to submit an optional letter of intent to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicating they plan to apply to the…
Headline
Susan Doherty, AHA’s vice president of field engagement, and Rebecca Chickey, AHA’s senior director of behavioral health services, write on the unique ways…
Blog
This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2023, the latest year for which data was…
Headline
A blog by Julia Resnick, AHA senior director of health outcomes and care transformation, describes a new project with the Commonwealth Fund that will explore…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Sept. 15 announced that states can now apply for funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program created…
Headline
The AHA detailed its key health care priorities for the remainder of the year in comments to House and Senate majority and minority leaders Sept. 15. The AHA…