Resources & Reports

SPRING 2022 HIGHLIGHTED FINDINGS:  The main areas where changes were made over the past five months fall in the three buckets that CCHP uses to categorize information within its Policy Finder: Medicaid policy, private payer policy, and regulation of health professionals.  A significant number of administrative changes centered around broadening Medicaid reimbursement. In many cases, this was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the expiration of many temporary expansions in telehealth reimbursement that have been in place for the past two years, and which providers and patients have become accustomed.

While the provision of health care via technology is not new, telehealth has made a big name for itself over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve now begun to see telehealth policy evolve and catch up with technology, allowing new alignment for providers utilizing various technologies in practice. These recent telehealth policy expansions will continue to pave the way for even more modernization in health care. A recent article in Harvard Business Review (HBR), The Telehealth Era Is Just Beginning, sought to capture the current understanding and evidence around telehealth, explaining what may come next in terms of the telehealth landscape and post-pandemic telehealth policy.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the influx of providers new to utilizing telehealth to deliver services not only sparked an increase in demands for individualized technical assistance but also for best practice guidelines.  Prior to the pandemic, best practice guidelines for the most part were created by professional organizations/societies or individual institutions to be used solely by their organizations.

Audio-only has become one of the most discussed telehealth policy issues over the course of the pandemic.  Its utilization, quality, and overall importance to access to care continue to be of focus in some of the latest telehealth surveys and studies. The American Medical Association (AMA) released their 2021 Telehealth Survey Report at the end of March, showcasing that more than two-thirds of providers utilizing telehealth use audio-only in particular. The poll also found that physicians prefer audio-video telehealth, with 93% of the over 2,000 physicians surveyed indicating use of live video.

CCHP’s April Newsletter is Here!  This month’s topics include: Anticipated Telehealth Changes When/If PHE Ends, What Stays, What Goes and When Could it Happen?; Two Federal COVID Reports Show Telehealth Imperative during COVID Emergency; CMS Provides Updates for FQHCs and RHCs to Bill Mental Health Visits via Telecommunications; Latest Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; FCC Comments on Promoting Telehealth in Rural America; CCHP Releases Telehealth Medicaid Reference Chart for American Indian/Alaskan Native Health Services; Senate Finance Committee Bipartisan Mental Health Report; URAC White Paper Details Their Observed Advantages of Telehealth in the Field.