The American Medical Association is asking Congress to make pandemic-era telemedicine changes permanent ahead of their Jan. 30 expiration.
Those flexibilities lapsed amid the recent government closure, coinciding with a 24% national decline in fee-for-service telehealth visits during the first 17 days of the shutdown, according to Brown University data cited in the Jan. 5 AMA article.
“Since the COVID-19 public health emergency, Congress has repeatedly extended telehealth flexibilities for Medicare patients — often at the last moment — creating uncertainty for millions of patients and their physicians,” stated AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD. “As the current waiver deadline approaches, Congress must finally act decisively to prevent a disruptive and abrupt halt to the expanded telehealth services that have improved care continuity, chronic disease management, and access for rural and underserved communities.”
The AMA is advocating for the permanent removal of restrictions on Medicare telehealth appointments, extension of the CMS hospital-at-home waiver through 2030, authorization of virtual diabetes prevention coverage, and resolution of barriers for remote patient monitoring reimbursement for maternal and child healthcare.
The organization also disputed the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of virtual care’s financial impacts, saying it didn’t factor in “long-term savings generated by early intervention, improved chronic disease management, and reduced use of costly emergency and inpatient services.”
