Alexander Backs Making Telehealth Rules Changes Permanent

Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said during a Wednesday hearing he wants Congress to make permanent two recent temporary rollbacks of telehealth restrictions. The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act Congress passed in March included language from the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act (HR-4982/S-2741) to expand telehealth services through Medicare. The Cares Act allowed the rules changes to remain in effect only during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2003250046). “We ought to stop and think for a moment about how significant a change this is and whether it would have even possibly happened without” the crisis, Alexander said during the Senate Health hearing. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are among lawmakers pushing to make the rules changes permanent (see 2006150032). Alexander also noted the temporary lift of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act security rules that allow patients to use FaceTime and other platforms to communicate with doctors. “The question of whether to extend the HIPAA privacy waivers should be considered carefully,” he said. “There are privacy and security concerns about the use of personal medical information by technology platform companies, as well as concerns about criminals hacking into these platforms.” American Telemedicine Association President Joseph Kvedar told Senate Health “we must make sure that essential telehealth services do not abruptly end with the public health emergency, especially as we look to reorient our healthcare system to deliver 21st century care.” University of Virginia Center for Telehealth Director Karen Rheuban also backed Alexander’s call for permanent rules changes, saying UVA “saw a greater than 9,000% increase in the use of telehealth” during the epidemic. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Chief Medical Officer Andrea Willis told the committee it’s unclear whether increased telehealth use is going to result in higher premiums.