The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives is jumping on the telehealth bandwagon.
CHIME has sent a letter to a Senate Finance Committee workgroup urging better access to and reimbursement of telehealth programs for chronic care management. The requests include a call for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to take a closer look at how telehealth might be incorporated into alternative care and payment models.
[See also: CHIME: Tablets are a triumph in home care]
The organization also criticized federal and state legislators for a patchwork of telehealth policies that hinder adoption.
"Hospitals and health systems are embracing the use of telehealth technologies because they offer benefits including the ability to perform high-tech monitoring without requiring patients to leave their homes, which can be less expensive and more convenient for patients," the letter states. "Yet whether public and private payers cover telehealth services and adequately reimburse hospitals and other healthcare providers for providing those services, is a complex and evolving issue and, as a result, a possible barrier to standardizing the provision of these valuable services."
"Inconsistencies in the definition and reimbursement policies of telehealth services in federal and state programs are hurdles to widespread adoption," the letter continues. "While Medicaid encourages states to use flexibility to create innovative payment methodologies for services that incorporate telemedicine, there are still significant coverage gaps from state to state. Differences in state laws, definitions and regulations create a confusing environment for hospitals and health systems that may care for a patient across state lines."
[See also: Interstate telehealth licensing compact set to become reality]
"The realignment of federal payment structures is a key factor to increasing access to telehealth services to those with chronic conditions," CHIME concluded.
The organization also called on the committee to tackle cross-state licensure issues that have often prevented physicians in one state from offering telemedicine service to consumers in other states. CHIME said it favors "policies to allow licensed healthcare providers to offer services to patients, using telemedicine, regardless of what state a patient resides in, notwithstanding whether the patient is within a traditional care setting or in one’s home."
CHIME also called on the committee to support telemedicine as a means of improving patient engagement, facilitating real-time communication between doctors and patients, supporting the reimbursement of patient telehealth training and education, and creating standards for the capture of data from remote medical devices and the exchange of that data with health IT systems.
The letter follows the Senate committee's call last month for stakeholder comments on new methods to improve chronic care, coupled with the formation of a bipartisan, full Finance Committee chronic care working group.
[See also: 2 telemedicine bills set to return to Congress]
