Resources & Reports

CCHP’s February Newsletter is here! This month’s topics include – HHS Proposes Major Updates to HIPAA Security Rule to Strengthen Cybersecurity; HHS Releases AI Strategic Plan to Enhance Healthcare and Public Health; CMS Provides Billing Instructions for Opioid Treatment Programs (OTP) Telecommunications Add-On Codes; In Case You Missed It: CCHP Released “Federal Telehealth Policy FAQs”; Latest Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trend Map; Study Highlights Barriers to Expanding CMS Hospital-at-Home Program. 

Last month in partnership with the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers (NCTRC), the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) held a webinar on federal telehealth policy for 2025. During the hour-long webinar, over 100 questions were asked, and due to such a high number, CCHP was unable to answer all the questions before the webinar concluded.  As a telehealth resource center, CCHP is charged with providing one-to-one technical assistance and regularly fields questions from the public regarding telehealth policy. As a result, CCHP thought it would be helpful for our audience to have us answer some of the more frequently asked questions regarding current federal telehealth policy that we have received through the aforementioned channels in this week’s #TelehealthTuesday newsletter.

Net neutrality, which is the concept of ensuring an open and equally accessible internet through regulating internet service providers (ISPs) similar to public utilities, has ended once again. On January 2, 2025, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacks authority to reinstate net neutrality rules preventing broadband providers from limiting consumer internet access, such as through blocking or slowing down speeds for certain services and websites.

Last week the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released three new rules impacting prescribing controlled substances via telehealth, including the long-awaited regulations regarding establishing a telehealth prescribing registration process that was first mandated by Congress back in 2008. While the registration regulation is a proposed rule, the two additional rules regarding buprenorphine and Veterans Affairs providers are final rules:

1. Proposed Rule – Special Registrations for Telemedicine and Limited State Telemedicine Registrations
2. Final Rule – Expansion of Buprenorphine Treatment via Telemedicine Encounter
3. Final Rule – Continuity of Care via Telemedicine for Veterans Affairs Patients

For the long-time readers of the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) newsletter, you may have noticed that we did not release a 2024 reflection newsletter among the most recent editions. The reason for this is because like many of you, CCHP was waiting to see what would happen with the temporary federal telehealth waivers applicable to Medicare. On December 21, 2024, with President Biden signing HR 10545, we got our answer, and it was likely not what many were hoping to see. HR 10545 was the continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the federal government funded through March 31, 2025. Included in that bill was an extension of the major statutory telehealth waivers, but only until March 31, 2025, just an additional three months.