Resources & Reports

This factsheet reviews the Proposed Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for CY 2022 as it pertains to telehealth.

The “Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021” was recently introduced by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). Having authored previous iterations of this bill, Senator Schatz notes that this Act will promote higher quality of care, increased access to care and reduce spending in Medicare through the expansion of telehealth services.

As things rapidly develop regarding what we know about COVID-19, policies around telehealth have also been evolving alongside of it.  We’ve been tracking those updates as they become available. This a living document that could change frequently as new information and new policies become available/are enacted.   

This is a summary of changes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has made to telehealth policy for Fee-for-Service Medicare.

Prior to COVID-19, California’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) had one of the most robust telehealth policies in the nation. While Medi-Cal had updated their Provider Manual in the summer of 2019 with more expansive policy around telehealth, even with these progressive policies, temporary changes were needed to allow telehealth to be utilized more widely and effectively in the face of COVID-19.

The combined relief-spending bill passed by Congress in late December 2020 included several telehealth-related provisions. Chief among them are the addition of a new Medicare payment designation, new flexibilities for rural hospitals, and significant funding for broadband access efforts. Several other notable telehealth-related provisions were tucked into the bill and CCHP has developed a factsheet summarizing what you need to know.