House Panel Adds Measures To Ease Telehealth Programs

The House Ways and Means Committee slipped several provisions into its health-care legislation that could significantly smooth the path for telehealth practice. Rep Mike Thompson (D-CA) said the panel approved several proposals that would eliminate some of the key hurdles the technology faces. The rise of increasingly sophisticated technology enabling doctors to assess and diagnose patients from a distance has been accompanied by legal barriers that many medical professionals believe may have stalled its growth. The biggest obstacle for doctors or hospitals that want to practice telehealth is making sure they comply with the rules of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That government agency manages the federal health entitlement programs and presently only reimburses physicians for certain telehealth treatments and in areas designated as underserved. The government agencies also have stricter policies than private programs in requiring doctors advising hospitals from a distance to be credentialed in both their own hospital and in the one they are consulting, a review process that adds time and expense.