Resources & Reports

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General(OIG) recently released a new report looking at telehealth use by home health agencies (HHAs) at the beginning of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). It wasn’t until the start of the PHE that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) allowed HHAs the ability to really utilize telehealth to furnish services, and the new allowance came with additional requirements and restrictions.

CCHP’s October Newsletter is here! This month’s topics include – DEA Issues Extension of Telemedicine Controlled Substance Flexibilities to Dec. 31, 2024; HHS Rule on Discrimination on the Basis of Disability Addresses Requirements for Telehealth Applications; Indian Health Services “Four Walls” Grace Period Extension; CMS Online Resource Dedicated to Process for Requests for Telehealth Service Additions; Latest Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; Revised Medicare Enrollment Application, Includes Telehealth Practice Location Type; American Telemedicine Association New Tools on Disparities and Inequities in Telehealth; Milbank North Carolina Telehealth Medicaid Issue Brief; Open for Questions:  FQHC Billing Assistance Technical Assistance. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently posted a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document for Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) and Mental Health Counselors (MHCs) regarding provider enrollment, which includes a section related to telehealth. As added in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (CAA, 2023) and CMS’ proposed CY 2024 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), MFTs and MHCs are now eligible Medicare practitioners, as well as eligible telehealth practitioners.

As mentioned in CCHP’s In-Focus last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held listening sessions on September 12 and 13 to gather more information on the proposals the agency made earlier this year regarding the use of telehealth to prescribe a controlled substance post-pandemic. Earlier this month, CCHP also provided a recap of DEA telehealth policy in our September newsletter, including the waiver of existing in-person requirements through November 11, 2023. For those interested in providing comment during the DEA listening sessions, the DEA implemented a request and approval process prior to the sessions for all comments/questions as described in the DEA notice.

In CCHP’s April 25, 2023 In Focus titled Health Data Privacy & Telehealth, we wrote about the rising concern regarding how telehealth vendors and practitioners were protecting and using health data.  We discussed recent actions the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had taken against dubious data sharing practices.  On July 20, 2023, the FTC and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) cautioned hospitals and telehealth providers on the privacy risks of online tracking technologies that may be integrated in websites and apps they were using. They warned that these tracking technologies may be disclosing personal health data to another party without the patient’s permission.