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
