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…
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…
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…
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:
…
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.…
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 …
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). …
