Launch of New bill would expand the access of Medicare beneficiaries to telehealth services

A bipartisan group of senators on the day of Thursday reintroduced a bill seeking to make better health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries living with chronic diseases by, among other provisions, expanding access to telehealth services.

The Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017 was reintroduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with Senators Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-chairs of the Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group.

The bill (S. 870) consist of major telehealth services provisions targeted at sufferers with chronic conditions, involving expanding the capability of home dialysis beneficiaries to get required monthly clinical assessments using telehealth, beginning in the year of 2019.

Section 102 “expands the number of originating sites from which the beneficiary can have a telehealth services assessment with the nephrologist to involve freestanding dialysis facilities and the sufferer’s home; and enables these telehealth visits to be conducted from the expanded list of sites without geographic restriction.”

Under Section 305 of the bill, sufferers presenting with stroke symptoms would also see expanded access to telehealth, getting a “timely consultation to evaluate the best course of treatment” through telehealth, beginning in the year of 2019.

“Particularly, it would eradicate the geographic restriction as to permit payment to a physician furnishing the telehealth consultation service in all places of the country,” states the proposed legislation. “The hospital at which the sufferer is present and the telehealth consultation is initiated wouldn’t get a separate originating site payment.”

Section 303 of the bill would also permit a Medicare Advantage plan to give additional telehealth benefits in its yearly bid amount beyond the services that presently get payment under Part B, beginning in 2020.

“An MA plan might give basic telehealth services benefits as part of the standard benefit; for instance, telemonitoring and web-based and phone technologies can be used to give telehealth services,” states the bill. “Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MAPD) may select to include telehealth services as part of their plan benefits, for example, in offering medication therapy management (MTM). However, while there is nothing to preclude MA from providing telemedicine or other technologies that they consider promote efficiencies beyond what is covered in the traditional Medicare program, those services and technologies are not separately paid for by Medicare and policies must use their rebate dollars to pay for those services as a supplemental benefit.”

Additionally, under Section 304, certain accountable care organizations would be offered more flexibility to provide telehealth services.

“Medicare policy can’t stand idly by while the requirements of people in the program shift to managing multiple costly chronic ailments. This bill gives new options and tools for seniors and their doctors to coordinate care and makes it less burdensome to stay healthy,” stated Wyden in a written statement.

Morgan Reed, executive director of the App Association’s Connected Health Initiative, applauded the senators’ decision to reintroduce the CHRONIC Care Act.

“We’ve long advocated the significant role healthcare technologies can play in treating the most debilitating sicknesses in the most vulnerable populations,” stated Reed. “The reintroduction of this act is a step in the right direction to incorporate telehealth solutions into the treatment of chronic illness, particularly strokes, and assist Medicare leverage the use of innovative technologies to improve patient outcomes and lower medical costs.”

At the similar time, Reed noted that Congress “has more to do to bring the advantages of connected health technologies to more Americans, involving improving the use of remote monitoring in community health centers and rural health clinics.”

A section-by-section summary of the CHRONIC Care Act is available here.