The general consensus was clear during a recent House hearing aimed at addressing the temporary easing of policies and payments: Telehealth as a concept is here to stay.
But as a year-end deadline to either reinforce or discard numerous COVID-era stopgap measures approaches, resolution is hardly in reach.
The House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health session made it obvious that issues such as licensure, provider payments and patient choice likely will remain unresolved when the new year rolls in.
Lawmakers and policymakers are likely to consider a temporary extension of the payments rather than permanent changes, said Maya Sandalow, a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, DC-based think tank.
Still, several witnesses pushed for continuing temporary waivers issued for telehealth services during the pandemic.
“The most important thing that Congress can do this year is make the Medicare telehealth flexibilities that you have enacted and extended on a bipartisan basis permanent,” testified Eve Cunningham, MD, who is the chief of virtual care and digital health for health system Providence.
Ensuring access to telehealth services “is the best public policy,” added Debbie Curtis, a vice president of McDermott+Consulting, a Washington, DC-based healthcare lobbying firm. “It’s the best business outcome. It’s the best patient care outcome,” she said.
Hearing witnesses generally lauded telehealth’s expansion, viewing it as a boon for both providers and their patients, especially during the COVID epidemic. Lee Schwamm, MD, from the Yale School of Medicine likened telehealth to a “backup generator that kept the lights on and averted a potential secondary healthcare disaster.”
According to a recent AARP survey, older adults are embracing telehealth at a remarkable rate, with satisfaction levels soaring. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of individuals aged 50 or more years have used telehealth services at least once within the past year, with an overwhelming number (90%) expressing satisfaction with their experience, investigators found.
Moreover, 60% of respondents reported feeling comfortable with telehealth, and an equal percentage expressed a preference for telehealth over traditional, in-person medical visits when it comes to convenience.
