CMS proposed several telehealth changes in the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule, issued July 10, 2024. Interactive Telecommunication Beginning January 1, 2025, an interactive telecommunication system may include two-way, real-time audio-only communication technology for any telehealth service furnished to a beneficiary in their home, if the distant site physician or practitioner is technically … Continue Reading
On February 24, 2023, the DEA announced “Proposed Permanent Rules” for the prescribing of controlled medications on a telemedicine or telehealth basis. Attached are: A summary will follow later this week.… Continue Reading
The US Office of Inspector General (OIG) released another in a series of Special Fraud Alerts on July 20, 2022, this one directed to potentially fraudulent telehealth, telemedicine, and telemarketing service fraud schemes, collectively referred to as “Telemedicine Companies”. The alert is based upon OIG’s perception that these Telemedicine Companies are engaged in schemes to … Continue Reading
The President and Congress extended Medicare telehealth coverage in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which also included additional Ukrainian relief. On Tuesday, March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (“2022 CAA”). This new law includes several provisions that extend the Medicare telehealth waivers and flexibilities, implemented as a result of COVID-19 to … Continue Reading
In MLN Matters article MM 12159, CMS has published summaries of the following: Updates to payment policies and Medicare payment rates for services provided by physicians and non-physician practitioners (NPP) Updates to Medicare telehealth services and telehealth originating site facility fee payment amounts Billing for a physician assistant (PA) services … Continue Reading
Mike Cassidy will be one of the panelists discussing “The Myths About Telehealth: Telefraud vs. Telemedicine Fraud” at the virtual CTeL Digital Health Summit on Thursday, December 16, 2021.… Continue Reading
The Pennsylvania Senate announced on October 26, 2021 that it has passed Senate Bill 705, and a copy of the Senate Press Release can be found at https://www.pasenategop.com/blog/senate-approves-telemedicine-bill/. A previous telemedicine bill was passed in Pennsylvania in July of 2018, when the Pennsylvania Senate approved Bill 780, which was discussed in my MedLaw Blog article … Continue Reading
Tucker Attorneys Mike Cassidy and Jerry Russo have been named as presenters for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) 2022 Health Law Institute. They will be presenting a program entitled “Federal Telehealth Enforcement: Policy Through Prosecution”. Stay tuned for more information on this PBI Health Law Institute program as the date draws nearer.… Continue Reading
Congratulations to Mike Cassidy on his recent appointment as a Member of the Legal Advisory Group of the National Center for Telehealth and eHealth Law (CTeL). Mike will co-present on behalf of CTeL, in a webinar entitled “The Myths about Telehealth–Hear the Facts”, at CTel’s Digital Health Summit in December. Click this link for more … Continue Reading
This article written by Michael Cassidy appeared in the September issue of the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin. Use this link to read the article.… Continue Reading
The Taskforce on Telehealth Policy (TTP) conveyed by NCQA, the Alliance for Connected Care, and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) issued a report urging the retention of the new policies on telehealth issued by CMS during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). Use this link to view the report.… Continue Reading
The American Health Law Association and Health IT News recently published reports indicating enormous increases in telehealth hacking attacks. Sam Kassoumeh, COO of Health IT News and Co-Founder of SecurityScorecard, stated: “The rapid pace at which telehealth applications were ruled out during the pandemic made them attractive targets for cyber criminals . . . Our … Continue Reading
The COVID pandemic has illuminated the need to modernize professional licensing. Although professional licensing has always been a necessary vigilance with licensing has always been appropriate, and never more so than as highlighted by the opioid epidemic and telemedicine fraud schemes when physicians could issue prescriptions and orders for services over the internet for patients … Continue Reading
This article by Mike Cassidy originally appeared in the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin June Edition. To read the article click here.… Continue Reading
Telehealth is apparently reaching a critical mass where people are starting to review the potential problems of telehealth, rather than the potential opportunities. In a MedLaw Blog post on December 6, 2017 and my related LinkedIn post, I referenced and included the link to the OIG’s audit plan, indicating OIG will begin to audit telehealth … Continue Reading
Telehealth has apparently reached the tipping point in its significance to the Medicare budget, because OIG has now announced that it will “review Medicare claims for telehealth services provided at distant sites that do not have corresponding claims from originating sites to determine whether those services met Medicare requirements.” The expected issue date of the … Continue Reading
The 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule finalizes the CMS changes for Telehealth reimbursement and coverage for 2017. The CMS fee schedule document also provides a comprehensive explanation of Medicare Telehealth reimbursement and coverage. I have excerpted those 35 pages and linked them as a PDF to this post: Medicare Telehealth Services. The essential takeaways are as … Continue Reading
There are two interesting items in telehealth news. Iowa Supreme Court Rejects Ban on Telemedicine Abortions An Iowa Board of Medicine rule requires the presence of a physician when abortion inducing drugs are provided. Planned Parenthood sued claiming the requirement of physician presence was unconstitutional on the basis that it discriminated against women, due to … Continue Reading
The Federal District Court of the Western District of Texas has ruled against the Texas Medical Board and granted TelaDoc’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting the Texas Medical Board from enforcing new rules requiring either a face-to-face or an existing physician patient relationship in order to prescribe medication. The Court rejected the Texas Medical … Continue Reading
House Bill 706 has been introduced in the Pennsylvania House. This is a “parity” bill which does the following: It defines telehealth in such as way as to neither mandate nor prohibit asynchronous or synchronous telehealth technology. It simply defines telehealth as the remote interaction of the healthcare provider with a patient through the use … Continue Reading
The Ohio State Medical Board has proposed new telehealth prescribing regulations, which are predicated upon whether the drug is a controlled or not a controlled substance. Non-Controlled Substances For non-controlled substances, physicians may prescribe or dispense medication to a person on whom the physician has never previously conducted a medical evaluation only if the physician … Continue Reading
Last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a new report regarding coverage of and payment for telemedicine (CMS Report 7-A-14). The report recognizes the telemedicine is a “key innovation in support of health bill reform, being used in initiatives to improve access to care, care coordination and quality, as well as reduce the rate … Continue Reading
This article by Mike Cassidy originally appeared in the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin June Edition. To read the article click here.… Continue Reading
