ATA ACTION TO HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH: WE STRONGLY SUPPORT BIPARTISAN TELEHEALTH MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2024, TO EXTEND MANY MEDICARE TELEHEALTH FLEXIBILITIES THROUGH 2026
WASHINGTON, DC, SEPTEMBER 18, 2024 – ATA Action, the American Telemedicine Association’s affiliated trade association focused on advocacy, today submitted a Statement for the Record to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, applauding their continued support of telehealth and for holding a full committee markup on important legislation that would extend many of the Medicare telehealth flexibilities, ensuring access to lifesaving and effective care well after December 31, 2024. This important vote took place during the ATA’s 4th annual Telehealth Awareness Week.
“The committee markup was voted out unanimously today, and we owe a great debt of gratitude to our telehealth champions in the House for their unwavering and ongoing support of telehealth and to bringing needed care to the American people, especially those in underserved communities,” said Kyle Zebley, senior vice president, public policy, the ATA and executive director, ATA Action. “Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Representatives Carter, Blunt Rochester, Steube, Sewell, Miller-Meeks, Dingell, Van Drew, and Morelle for this extraordinary bipartisan vote of support. We will be looking to you and your colleagues in Congress to ensure that access to telehealth services in Medicare, commercial coverage, and the ability to prescribe clinically appropriate controlled substances remotely—unencumbered by unnecessary burdens like in-person requirements—will continue past the end of the year, allowing uninterrupted delivery of needed care, anywhere.”
ATA Action is strongly supportive of the bipartisan Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 (H.R. 7623), legislation that would extend many Medicare telehealth flexibilities through the end of CY2026.
“These provisions play an essential role in expanding access to care for patients regardless of geographic location and allow a broader range of healthcare professionals to provide telehealth services. We firmly endorse postponement of the arbitrary in-person requirement for telemental health services, which could disrupt the 80% of Medicare beneficiaries who have chosen to see their providers virtually without an in-person visit..
“Further, ATA Action strongly supports the five-year extension of the innovative and critical Acute Hospital Care at Home Program, recognizing its value in reducing hospital overcrowding and providing patients with the comfort and safety of receiving hospital-level care in their homes. Although we believe these provisions should be permanent, we understand the current dynamics and support a two-year extension,” Zebley added.
Other ATA Action legislative priorities that have advanced and await House floor consideration include the following:
- Telehealth Expansion Act (1001, HR 1843): Permanently allows individuals with HDHP-HSAs to access telehealth services before meeting their deductible.
- Medicare Telehealth Privacy Act of 2023 (HR 6364): Ensures the privacy of providers by keeping their home addresses confidential.
- Telehealth Benefit Expansion for Workers Act of 2023 (HR 824): Permanently classifies telehealth as an excepted benefit, enhancing access for workers.
“An additional, critical telehealth priority supported by ATA Action, which, like many other flexibilities, has been in place for nearly half a decade, is the remote prescribing of controlled substances. If left unaddressed, this issue could create dire consequences,” said Zebley. “We urgently request that Congress press the DEA to sustain these vital flexibilities by issuing a special registration proposed rule and extending the current waivers for two more years, alongside other Medicare telehealth flexibilities. With limited time left in the year, prescribers, patients, and stakeholders are not equipped to adapt to a new rule immediately.”
Read ATA Action’s Statement for the Record here.
“The clock is ticking on this Telehealth Super Bowl, and we are running out of time to provide patients certainty around access to needed care and give clinicians and U.S. healthcare systems enough time to implement appropriate virtual tools, technologies, programs, and processes moving forward,” Zebley said. “We appreciate the Committee’s tenacity to act on telehealth earlier this year, rather than later, and will continue to work urgently and collaborative to ensure that the appropriate telehealth policies are implemented in a timely manner without arbitrary and unnecessary barriers to care such as in-person, brick-and-mortar, or geographic requirements.”
About ATA Action
ATA Action recognizes that telehealth and virtual care have the potential to transform the healthcare delivery system by improving patient outcomes, enhancing the safety and effectiveness of care, addressing health disparities, and reducing costs. ATA Action is a registered 501c6 entity and an affiliated trade organization of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).
