Tag Archives: telehealth

ILN Today Post
May 6, 2020

The state of COVID-19 telehealth

By McDonald Hopkins LLC

This article on the sweeping and urget changes in the telehealth space has been updated to reflect the April 30, 2020, press release by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announcing expanded Medicare payments and coverage for telehealth services.
READ MORE

Posted in Healthcare
Read full article
March 31, 2020

Some States Are Prioritizing Telehealth Through Section 1135 Waiver Requests

By Francesca R. Ozinal of Epstein Becker & Green

On March 13, 2020, President Trump issued a proclamation that the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) outbreak in the United States constituted a national emergency. Following this proclamation, pursuant to section 1135(b) of the Social Security Act, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Alex Azar, invoked his authority to waive or modify certain requirements of titles of the Act as a result of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, to the extent necessary, as determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), to ensure that sufficient health care items and services are available to meet the needs of individuals enrolled in the Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (“CHIP”). This authority took effect on March 15, 2020, with a retroactive effective date of March 1, 2020 and will terminate at the conclusion of the public health emergency period.[1] Pursuant to this authority, HHS announced a number of nationwide blanket waivers, including a waiver related to telehealth, in order for providers to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency.[2]

Posted in Healthcare
Read full article
ILN Today Post
March 20, 2020

COVID-19 impact on telehealth services

By McDonald Hopkins LLC

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights have each issued separate announcements that enhance the ability to furnish telehealth during the COVID-19 public health emergency. These policies will allow flexibility during the coronavirus emergency period to provide telehealth services:

  • Without collecting coinsurance and deductible amounts from federal health care program patients. Click here to read more
  • Using applications such as FaceTime, Skype, Messenger video, or Google Hangouts even if the applications don’t meet HIPAA standards. Click here to read more
  • Using smart phone for telehealth communication and providing services via telehealth even when the patient is at a location (such as his or her home) that does not satisfy Medicare telehealth originating site standards.
    Click here to read more

CMS has also issued guidance intended to help states better understand policy options for paying Medicaid providers using telehealth to deliver patient services in combating COVID-19. Click here to read more

Posted in Healthcare
Read full article
March 19, 2020

Telehealth Flexibility: Key Regulatory Changes that Providers Should Know

By Audrey Davis of Epstein Becker & Green

While providers struggle to provide health care to their patients amid the coronavirus contagion concerns, recent regulatory and reimbursement changes will help ease the path to the provision of healthcare via telehealth.

On March 6, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law an $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) response funding package. In addition to providing funding for the development of treatments and public health funding for prevention, preparedness, and response, the bill authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar (referred to herein as the “Secretary”), to waive Medicare restrictions on the provision of services via telehealth during this public health emergency.

Posted in Healthcare
Read full article
ILN Today Post
March 18, 2020

COVID-19 impact on telehealth services

By McDonald Hopkins LLC

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights have each issued separate announcements that enhance the ability to furnish telehealth during the COVID-19 public health emergency. These policies will allow flexibility during the coronavirus emergency period to provide telehealth services:

  • Without collecting coinsurance and deductible amounts from federal health care program patients.
    Click here to read more
  • Using applications such as FaceTime, Skype, Messenger video, or Google Hangouts even if the applications don’t meet HIPAA standards.
    Click here to read more
  • Using smart phone for telehealth communication and providing services via telehealth even when the patient is at a location (such as his or her home) that does not satisfy Medicare telehealth originating site standards.
    Click here to read more
Posted in Healthcare
Read full article
March 18, 2020

COVID-19 – New York Expands Telehealth Utilization

By Arthur J. Fried of Epstein Becker & Green

We hope that everyone is staying safe during the COVID-19 crisis. State health departments are, of course, doing what they can to facilitate management of transmission of COVID-19 by healthcare providers. Some recent actions by the New York Department of Health (“DOH”) to allow or promote telephonic and telehealth services include:

Telephonic Evaluation – Beginning with dates of service of March 13, Medicaid will reimburse telephonic evaluation and management services for established patients where face-to-face visits may not be recommended and it is medically appropriate to evaluate and manage the patient by phone. Additionally, where a patient face-to-face visit is not possible due to the State of Emergency, telephonic visits documented as clinically appropriate by the provider will be considered medically necessary for Medicaid payment purposes.

Posted in Healthcare | Legal Updates | North America
Read full article
ILN Today Post
March 13, 2020

Coronavirus legislation allows expanded use of telehealth

By McDonald Hopkins LLC

The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplementation Appropriations Act, signed into law on March 6, 2020, includes the Telehealth Services During Certain Emergency Periods Act of 2020, which gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority to expand the use of telehealth within outbreak areas during the current (or a renewal) coronavirus emergency period. Read more…

Posted in Healthcare | Legal Updates | North America
Read full article
April 19, 2019

CMS Final Rule Offers the Promise of Additional Telehealth Services for MA Plan Enrollees

By Helaine I. Fingold of Epstein Becker & Green

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has published a final rule that will expand access to telehealth services for Medicare Advantage (“MA”) plan enrollees.[1] CMS Administrator Seema Verma characterized the agency’s latest policymaking efforts as “a historic step in bringing innovative technology to Medicare beneficiaries” and a way for the agency to provide “greater flexibility to Medicare Advantage plans, [so] beneficiaries can receive more benefits, at lower costs and better quality.”[2]

Read more

Posted in News | North America
Read full article
April 18, 2019

CMS Seeks to Improve Patient Care and Decrease Costs for Emergency Transportation by Implementing New Medicare Payment Model

By Matthew Sprankle of Epstein Becker & Green

On February 14, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced the Emergency Triage, Treatment and Transport reimbursement model (the “ET3 Model”), a demonstration project that aims to provide improved flexibility to ambulance crews addressing 911-initiated emergency calls for Medicare beneficiaries.

Read more

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
Read full article
March 28, 2019

Obscure FDA Device Reporting Exemptions Draw Patient and Provider Concern

By Bonnie Odom of Epstein Becker & Green

Many physicians rely on publicly available reports to assess the safety of the devices they use on patients, but in some cases, these reports aren’t painting the full picture.  A recent Kaiser Health News (“KHN”) article raises serious questions about FDA’s practice of allowing a significant number of medical device injury and malfunction reports to stay out of the public eye.

Read more

Posted in Legal Updates | North America
Read full article
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7