Resources & Reports

Earlier this month the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) released draft telehealth policy guidance, Draft Scope of Project and Telehealth Policy Information Notice (Telehealth PIN), for HRSA-funded health centers and Health Center Program look-alikes. The guidance includes considerations and criteria for health centers to meet in order to provide telehealth services to patients. HRSA is inviting public feedback and comment on the Draft Telehealth PIN until mid-November.

Cross-state practice issues have become a source of great confusion during the pandemic for both providers and patients. Generally, telehealth is considered to occur at the physical location of the patient, requiring a provider to have a license to practice in the state where the patient is located, or fall under a licensure exception or participate in an eligible licensing compact in the patient’s state.

CCHP’s September Newsletter is Here! This month’s topics include – OIG Report on Program Integrity Risk in Medicare Telehealth Billing during First Year of COVID; Latest Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; PHE Likely Extended Due to No 60-day Notice; Status of Cross-State Licensing Telehealth Policy Post-COVID-19; Telehealth Waivers in the Frontier Community Health Integration Project Demonstration; Abortion – My Body My Data Act; CMS Updates Connected Care Toolkit Update; A Decade of Telehealth Policy – A New Report from CCHP; What Data Reveals about Telehealth for Medicare Beneficiaries with Chronic Conditions; Findings from a Study on Use of Telephonic Codes during the Pandemic in Arizona Medicaid.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Impact of COVID-19 Telehealth Policy Changes on Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, found that expanded policies allowing increased use of telehealth by phone and video kept veterans receiving medication-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Using Veterans Health Administration data, authors compared pre-pandemic and post-pandemic trends related to telehealth use specific to buprenorphine treatment, as well as examining treatment retention changes.

Ten years ago, in the early months of 2012, the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) faced a decision of potentially great significance. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORPH) Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) had released a Funding Opportunity Announcement for their Telehealth Resource Center Grant Program and the incumbent contractor for the National Telehealth Resource Center for Policy (NTRC-P) contract would not be reapplying. After weighing the pros and cons of acting as the NTRC-P, CCHP decided to take the plunge and applied.  On September 1, 2012, CCHP officially started its work as the federally designated National Telehealth Policy Resource Center and have been serving that role for the past decade.