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
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2019. A summary produced by that bipartisan group is attached. If enacted, the CONNECT for Health Act solutions would be as follows: Create a bridge program to help providers transition to the goals … Continue Reading
The final Medicare 2019 Physician Fee Schedule https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/PhysicianFeeSched/index.html rule was posted on November 1, 2019, to be effective January 1, 2019. It includes Section II(D) entitled “Modernizing Medicare Physician Payment by Recognizing Communication Technology-Based Services”, with several subsections. Brief communication technology-based services (EG Virtual Check-In) (HCPCS Code G2012) Remote evaluation of prerecorded patient information (HCPCS … Continue Reading
Just as a point of providing information, please note that CMS has revised its Medicare Learning Network (MLN) booklet for telehealth services. The February 2018 edition is included in this link. https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNProducts/downloads/TelehealthSrvcsfctsht.pdf The 2019 proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule also seeks comments on proposed expansion of telehealth services. That will be the subject of … 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 Texas Medical Board recently adopted a new rule requiring face to face encounters by physicians with patients before prescribing medication. Teladoc has sued the Texas Medical Board in Federal Court alleging restraint of trade, stating that the new Texas rule “would raise prices and reduce access” to telehealth services. The Complaint alleges the same … 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
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a Bill late last week, which will take effect as of January 1, expanding telehealth coverage in New York. This law does three things which are on the leading edge of telehealth coverage: First, it requires commercial insurance and medical assistance to provide telehealth coverage, which provision is often … Continue Reading
CMS has issued the Proposed 2015 Physician Fee Schedule and Fact Sheets for specific issues (ASC, ESRD, Home Health, Physician Quality Programs). SGR Reduction Although the Protecting Access to Medicare Act Prohibits any SGR reduction for the first 60 days of 2015, i.e., until March 1, 2015, CMS predicts a 20.9% decrease without legislative action. … Continue Reading
The March 20th edition of Modern Healthcare reports on a “patient centered telemedicine policy” to be voted on by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). I’ve attached links to both the article and to the FSMB model policy. The model policy, if approved, will be a recommendation to state medical boards regarding telemedicine. The … Continue Reading
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) contains several provisions aimed to reduce fraud and abuse in home health and Durable Medical Equipment (DME) programs, which CMS and OIG consider to be high risk programs. Effective July 1, 2010, physicians who order covered home health or DME services must be enrolled in Medicare (§ 6405). … Continue Reading
