Resources & Reports

CCHP’s July Newsletter is Here! This month’s topics include – CMS Releases CY 2024 Physician Fee Schedule with Restructuring of Telehealth Service Code System and Other Changes; Emerging Trends Observed in Recent Updates to CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; CBO Telehealth Estimates for Telehealth Expansion Act; American Heart Association Launches Telehealth Certification;  Virginia Telehealth Network Provider Survey; Benefit of Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth for Employees; In case you missed it:  CCHP’s 2023 Medicare Billing Guide Release.

Today the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) is releasing its 2023 Telehealth Billing Guide for Medicare Fee-For-Service.  Due to the uncertainty of what temporary COVID-19 telehealth policies would remain in place post-public health emergency (PHE), CCHP delayed releasing this guide until the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed what their policies would be for fee-for-service Medicare. As such, the information contained in this guide is current up to May 2023.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made a number of resources available for providers related to telehealth, including a webpage devoted to telehealth for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) patients. The site discusses best practices and workflows for LGBTQ+ telehealth care, as well as ways of treating LGBTQ+ patients through telehealth. The resources seek to ensure providers are equipped to provide equitable care to LGBTQ+ patients and their families while better understanding the medical, emotional and social issues unique to the LGBTQ+ community.

Last month the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) clarified that it would be extending the public health emergency (PHE) allowances for using telehealth to prescribe controlled substances for an additional six months after the end of the PHE (May 11, 2023). This would mean that practitioners may still prescribe controlled substances to patients via telehealth without having had an in-person exam or meeting one of the other exceptions found in federal law until November 11, 2023. After November 11, 2023, those practitioners who during the pandemic and the six months after the end of the PHE used telehealth to prescribe to patients without conducting an in-person exam, may continue to prescribe controlled substances to those patients for an additional year.