Lawmakers rolled out a roughly $1.7 trillion year-end spending bill Dec. 20 to fund the U.S. government through most of 2023, tacking on proposals to extend telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities while leaving out other healthcare asks. Lawmakers have until the end of Dec. 23 to clear the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill or federal funds are […]
Among other spending allocations, Congress released an omnibus bill with provisions related to nursing homes and long-term care. The spending package calls for a “strategy for long-term care for aging veterans” and a study on the costs of serious mental illness, including in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. The bill, which Congress is expected to vote […]
The omnibus spending bill currently set before Congress includes provisions that would extend the waiver for recertification using telehealth through the end of 2024, among other items pertaining to hospice. Legislators have released the text of the more than 6,000-page bill that is intended to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2023. Congress is working to […]
Update: President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Dec. 29, 2022. Update: The bill passed both chambers of Congress and was sent to President Joe Biden as of Dec. 23, 2022. The year-end $1.7 trillion spending bill includes provisions to extend pandemic-era telehealth and hospital-at-home waivers for two years. The legislation, released Tuesday, aims to avert a government shutdown […]
The relative independence and health of senior living residents compared with other long-term care recipients likely affect the use of telehealth in independent living and assisted living communities, but an author of a new study tells McKnight’s Senior Living that opportunities exist for such communities to save money, increase resident satisfaction and improve care delivery to residents […]
Telehealth is the distribution of healthcare services using digital telemedicine software. It is the best-known method for patients and healthcare providers nowadays. In the past, telehealth was not very popular, and most patients felt better visiting their doctors in person instead of using this technology. But the pandemic has changed the course of history. Before COVID-19 […]
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees last night released the fiscal year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations legislation that would fund the government through Sept. 30, 2023. The bipartisan bill includes various provisions beneficial to hospitals and health systems. The legislation would: In a statement released today, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said, “The AHA is pleased that on a bipartisan […]
WASHINGTON — Leaders in Congress have reached a sweeping deal to ease Medicare pay cuts to doctors, make major changes to post-pandemic Medicaid policy, and to help prepare for future pandemics. Lawmakers are aiming to pass a health care policy package along with legislation to fund the federal government by Friday. The details of the omnibus […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the United States, states, payers, and providers are looking for ways to expand access to telehealth services. Telehealth is an essential tool in ensuring patients are able to access the healthcare services they need in as safe a manner as possible. In order to provide our clients with quick […]
Eight studies to know that Becker’s has reported on since Dec. 1:
Only 15 percent of patients who were eligible for Medicare fee-for-service telehealth used the service in the second quarter of 2022, according to a Dec. 15 telehealth utilization report from CMS. CMS analyzed data from Medicare Fee-for-Service Part B claims data and Medicare enrollment information for beneficiaries who utilized telehealth services between January 1, 2020, and June […]
CONTENTS How will this Toolkit help me? This Toolkit will help you: Telehealth Integration and Optimization Toolkit Improve patient care through virtual health care delivery. Get the Toolkit (PDF) Introduction Before the COVID-19 pandemic, an aging population, geographic and sociodemographic disparities in access to care, and health care professional workforce shortages drove the desire for virtual […]
Two House members said that congress is trying to expand Medicare’s virtual flexibilities beyond the public health emergency, NextGov reported Dec. 14. “Unfortunately, it took a global pandemic for us to realize the larger benefits of telehealth and really introduce telehealth into traditional Medicare,” said Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member. Lawmakers […]
In anticipation of critical telehealth flexibilities expiring on Dec. 31, US Representatives Michelle Steel (CA-48), Brad Schneider (IL-10), and Susie Lee (NV-3), along with a bipartisan group of 30 Congress members, sent a letter requesting that House leadership include two pieces of legislation that extend some flexibilities in a year-end package. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, patients […]
After the COVID-19 pandemic changed telehealth, expanding access to the digital health care under temporary emergency policies, two House members said that congressional efforts are trying to expand Medicare’s virtual flexibilities beyond temporary pandemic efforts at an Axios event on Wednesday. According to CDC data from October, approximately 37% of adults in the U.S. used telemedicine in […]