Federal Activity

COVID-19: ATA Recommendations to Congress

ATA submitted recommendations to Congress on measures to facilitate the use of telehealth and expand the use of virtual care by health care providers during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

ATA Recommendations on the Federal Response to COVID-19

ATA recommendations to the Administration on actions that can immediately be taken to facilitate the use of telehealth and expand the use of virtual care by health care providers during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

COVID-19 Supplemental Appropriation

ATA CEO Ann Mond Johnson submitted a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services urging them to leverage the telehealth waiver authority provided under H.R.6074, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020. This waiver removes telehealth geographic site restrictions for Medicare beneficiaries, providing critical access to care for patients affected by COVID-19.

COVID-19 Supplemental Appropriation

ATA, along with a number of health care stakeholders, submitted a follow up letter urging Congress to address barriers that were built into the telehealth waiver provision of the Coronavirus Supplemental Appropriation that are preventing health care providers from fully leveraging and scaling critical telehealth services needed to combat COVID-19.

COVID-19 Supplemental Appropriation

ATA, along with a number of health care stakeholders, submitted a letter urging Congress to expand access to telehealth services in the COVID-19 supplemental appropriation and provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the authority to waive existing Medicare restrictions on telehealth visits during a public health emergency.

"Cures 2.0" Legislative Framework

The ATA shared feedback with leaders in Congress as work begins on a framework for a “Cures 2.0” legislative package that would build and expand on reforms included in the 21st Century Cures Act, passed in December 2016.

H.R. 6353

ATA, along with a number of healthcare stakeholders, submitted a letter with comments on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) implementation of a Special Registration provision for telemedicine under the Ryan Haight Act.

Public Law 114-145

ATA commends the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for seeking input on how to ensure legitimate access to controlled substances while also preventing diversion and abuse. This issue is very important to our members and we appreciate being able to provide feedback and recommendations.

Section 3021 of the Affordable Care Act

In 2018, Congress and CMS recognized our calls to action and provided our industry with a variety of new and unique opportunities to demonstrate the value of telehealth. Perhaps the biggest opportunity created by federal policy changes lies in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. CMS has allowed three things for the Medicare Advantage population in the coming plan years: 1) the ability to include telehealth in the base bid rather than as a supplemental benefit, 2) the ability to use telehealth providers to meet MA network adequacy standards, and 3) the ability to apply differential cost sharing for “high value providers” (meaning that plans could choose to charge beneficiaries $0 copays for telehealth providers).

H.R. 6353

In response to the mandate from H.R. 6, the ATA convened a special member workgroup within its Telebehavioral Health Special Interest Group. The workgroup developed five recommendations for how a special registration process could be structured to enable the safe prescribing of certain controlled substances via telehealth.

H.R. 6502

The ATA supports legislative efforts to expand access to telehealth services, which we believe will improve patient outcomes, patients and provider satisfaction, and lower costs to the healthcare system. The RUSH Act, introduced in the 115th Congress, represents one such effort by expanding access to emergency telehealth for Medicare patients in nursing homes with the goal of reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations.