Online Learning Initiative (Mobile Hotspots and Monthly Internet Service)
A new bill before Congress aims to increase funding for telehealth expansion programs that target improved broadband connectivity.
The Accelerating Connected Care and Education Support Services on the Internet (ACCESS the Internet) Act, introduced this past week by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and John Cornyn (R-TX), proposes to add $400 million to Federal Communications Commission’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which was shut down last month after exhausting its $200 million allocation through the CARES Act. It would also set aside another $100 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand connected health access for veterans in rural and underserved areas.
The bill targets a significant barrier to telehealth expansion in rural and remote areas of the country. Healthcare providers can’t extend programs and services into these areas – and residents can’t use them – unless they have access to reliable and uninterrupted broadband.
“The current COVID-19 pandemic has shone a new light on the broadband issues in West Virginia and across rural America,” Manchin said in a press release. “Americans and West Virginians have had to adjust to a new way of working, learning, and living from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for most people, this change relies on accessible, reliable broadband which many rural Americans do not have.”
“This commonsense bill could help our children, Veterans and families access reliable broadband to pay their bills, complete their homework, and keep up with doctor’s appointments,” he added.
The bill would also add $1.3 billion to the Department of Education to boost distance learning service and give $200 million to the Institute for Museum & Library Services, with at least $1.6 million set aside per state, to improve Internet connectivity in libraries in low-income and rural areas.
The FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has been a hot topic on Capitol Hill in recent months. Created out of the CARES Act in March, the program provided funding for 539 programs in 47 states, Washington DC and Guam before running out of funding in July. At the time, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency would follow up with a study on how well the program accomplished its goals.
There have been a few attempts to keep that program going. In April, the American Telemedicine Association petitioned Congressional leaders to add $300 million to the program, and in July US Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Dusty Johnson (R-SD) introduced a bill to add $200 million to the program through an FY 2020 supplemental appropriation, following up on a letter to Pai that was signed by more than 40 members of Congress.
The VA’s telehealth and mHealth programs haven’t gone without notice, either. Earlier this month, US Reps. Susie Lee (D-NV) and Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced the VA Telehealth Expansion Act, which aims to give the VA Secretary more authority to enter into new partnerships and expand existing deals that support connected health access for veterans. It would create a grant program to facilitate those partnerships, and would give special emphasis to programs that help veterans in rural or underserved parts of the country.
In June, the VA announced that the coronavirus pandemic had created a surge in business for the agency’s three-year-old connected health platform, including a 1,000 percent increase over the usual traffic recorded on the VA Video Connect mHealth app.
A bill introduced this week would allow healthcare providers in good standing to use telehealth to treat patients in any state during the coronavirus pandemic.
– A new bill before Congress takes aim at one of the bigger barriers to telehealth expansion: interstate licensure.
Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) this week unveiled the Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment (TREAT) Act, which would enable healthcare providers in good standing to use connected health to treat patients in any state during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges for our health care system, like reaching patients who are advised to avoid clinics and hospitals, allowing students to continue care when they’re away from campuses, or speeding reinforcements to areas with a high number of cases,” Blunt said in a press release. “The TREAT Act responds to those challenges by increasing flexibility for providers to care for patients wherever they are. The bill maintains all the safeguards patients should expect, while eliminating bureaucratic hurdles that impede access to care. It’s the right approach to make sure we keep people connected with their providers and allow frontline workers to lend support in areas where they’re needed most.”
Current guidelines require providers to have licenses in each state in which they practice, a costly and time-consuming issue for health systems that span several states and telehealth services that reach patients regardless of where they’re located. It’s a hotly debated issue, with some supporting the current practice, some supporting licensure compacts that span several states or regions, and some even suggesting one license for the entire country.
Some states have relaxed their guidelines during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but telehealth advocates note the process is still very confusing, with each state having its own rules. And those emergency measures will end with the emergency.
Providers sanctioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs already have the ability to use telehealth to treat veterans in any state. That freedom was included in the Veterans E-Health & Telemedicine Support (VETS) Act, which was passed in 2017.
The bill would give Health and Human Services Secretary the authority to phase out the service over a six-month period after the coronavirus ends and launch it again in future emergencies. It would also require the provider to obtain oral or written permission from the patient before using telemedicine or mHealth technology, and give each state the authority to pursue investigations or disciplinary actions on any provider who has practiced in that state under the reciprocity measure.
“COVID-19 has hammered our already fragile health care system, and the last thing our frontline workers need is more bureaucratic red tape. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure any health care provider, in good standing and with a valid license to practice medicine, can provide services in any location throughout the pandemic,” Murphy said in the press release. “That’s why we are introducing the TREAT Act, which provides a temporary uniform licensing standard so health care workers can help those in need, including through telehealth, regardless of the patient’s physical location. With over 150,000 Americans dead and millions more infected, we must be all hands on deck to contain COVID-19.”
The bill is quite similar to the Equal Access to Care Act, introduced in June by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), which would allow a provider in any state to use telehealth to treat a patient in any location for up to 180 days after the national emergency.
And it’s one of dozens introduced to Congress over the past few months that address expanding telehealth access and coverage – including the TREATS (Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services) Act, introduced in July, which aims to expand the telehealth platform for substance abuse treatment.
The bill has a considerable list of supporters, including the American Hospital Association, American College of Physicians, American Medical Group Association and dozens of high-profile hospitals and health systems.
August 5, 2020
As Covid-19 drives many patients away from in-person care and toward virtual visits, experts warn that the nation’s most vulnerable members may be shut out of the booming telehealth business.
Federal policymakers temporarily relaxed regulations to make it easier to provide virtual care during the pandemic, fueling a shift toward telemedicine that has become so popular among patients and providers that there are now a number of proposals to make the changes permanent. Just this week, President Trump signed an executive order that would permanently extend some of those policies.
But a pair of new studies published this week show that there are barriers to virtual visits that regulatory changes alone can’t fix.
“The temporary reform due to Covid allowed telemedicine visits from a patient’s home, but it presumed that patients had access to the technology to engage in those visits,” said Eric Roberts, a health policy researcher and at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-author of one of the papers. “We’re showing that there’s a substantial number of Medicare beneficiaries who lack access to that technology.”
The paper, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries were stranded on the far side of the digital divide in 2018, with neither a home computer with a high-speed internet connection or a smartphone with a wireless plan.
One way to potentially narrow that gap, according to the authors: expand the federal Lifeline program, which subsidizes phone and internet services for impoverished families, to cover more low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
They cautioned, however, that the program is limited and does not pay for devices themselves. Yet another problem is that people who can afford devices aren’t always able to use them.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham met with medical professionals at the USC School of Medicine today to discuss the benefits of telemedicine and its expansion throughout South Carolina. Mark Sweatman, MUSC Director of Government Relations and Secretary to the Board of Trustees; Kathy Schwarting, Palmetto Care Connections CEO; Senator Graham; Meera Narasimhan, MD, DFAPA, Associate Provost Health Sciences USC, Professor and Chair Department of NeuroSciences and Behavioral Science, USC School of Medicine; Ken Rogers, MD, Director of SC Department of Mental Health; and Mark Wess, MD Chief Medical Information Officer at Prisma Health attended. This week, Senator Graham and Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) will introduce legislation to allocate $10 billion to help governors across America speed up the deployment of broadband in areas where there is greatest need.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (PRESS RELEASE) – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) will visit the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Prisma Health this afternoon starting at 12:30.
Officials say he will discuss the future of telemedicine, the benefits it offers, and how to expand its use throughout South Carolina.
The event starts at the Dean’s Board Room at UofSC’s School of Medicine building on the Third Floor at 3555 Harden Street Extension.
Senator Graham will also introduce the Governors’ Broadband Development Fund with Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) this week.
According to his office, the legislation allocates $10 billion to help governors across America speed up the deployment of broadband in areas where there is the greatest need.
Governors can use these funds to support schools and hospitals, and provide broadband access to rural America.
Graham noted that based on available data, an estimated 650,000 South Carolinians lack broadband access.
About Palmetto Care Connections
Palmetto Care Connections (PCC) is the telehealth network for South Carolina that offers telehealth support services to rural and underserved health care providers.
