Resources & Reports

The Commonwealth Fund recently released an issue brief titled, States’ Actions to Expand Telemedicine Access During COVID-19 and Future Policy Considerations, to help inform future policy considerations for telehealth post-pandemic. Focusing on private insurance coverage, the authors reviewed pre-pandemic state telehealth statutes as well as state emergency actions related to telehealth between March 2020 and March 2021.

At present, CCHP is tracking over 100 pieces of telehealth legislation in the current federal legislative session.  This month we have seen a number of bipartisan bills introduced, continuing the federal push to expand telehealth availability and codify flexibilities allowed during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and its National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory recently released a new evidence-based resource guide titled, Telehealth for the Treatment of Serious Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders, to support implementation of telehealth across diverse mental health and substance use disorder treatment settings.  

A Kaiser Family Foundation brief presents new information and analysis of Medicare beneficiaries’ utilization of telehealth using Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services  (CMS) survey data from between summer and fall of 2020 while CMS emergency telehealth expansions were in effect.  Given the limitations around Medicare telehealth coverage pre-pandemic, many of these individuals had little experience with telehealth previously, offering an important perspective to inform ongoing telehealth policy considerations.