Telehealth Community Asked to Urge Congress to pass the Medicare Telehealth Improvement Act, S. 2812

The telehealth community is asked to urge Congress to pass the Medicare Telehealth Improvement Act, S. 2812. This federal telehealth legislation was introduced on April 3 by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and is currently co-sponsored by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Thune (R-SD).

S. 2812 would expand the existing Medicare telehealth program in several important ways.

First, the bill would increase the list of eligible originating sites to include skilled nursing facilities, dialysis centers and community mental health centers. In addition to improving care in these facilities, there are significant cost savings achieved by avoiding transporting medically fragile patients.

Second, S. 2812 would expand the list of authorized providers in the Medicare telehealth program to include physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists and diabetes educators.

Finally, S. 2812 would improve the process of reviewing services to determine if they are appropriate for Medicare telehealth reimbursement by creating an advisory committee of practicing telehealth providers. Medicare would retain the final decision making authority, but they would have the benefit of the advice of actual telehealth providers.

Please contact your 2 U.S. Senators and urge them to co-sponsor S. 2812.