05/07/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/07/2024 11:15
Homeยป House Marks Up Telehealth Act and Other Extensions
The House Committee on Ways and Means will mark up a series of health care bills on May 8. Among them is the "Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act."
This bill authorizes the continuation of the Acute Hospital at Home Waiver program through 2029. LeadingAge supports this extension though, as we noted in our March 2024 statement for the record, we hope that continued work is done within this waiver to improve partnerships with home health and to support caregivers.
This bill continues extensions of the telehealth authorities authorized during the Spring of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These authorities were last extended in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 and are set to expire in December. This bill authorizes a two year extension through December 2026.
The specific policies under consideration in this bill include:
CMS has an ongoing list of which codes are billable via telehealth, whether they are eligible for audio-only, and whether the code is permanently or provisionally billable via telehealth.
Also extended in this legislation is the flexibility for hospice providers to perform the face to face recertification via telehealth.
More details on this can be found in a separate article here.