AJ TaylorDecember 22, 2020Last Updated: February 28, 2021
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley issued the following statement after Senate passage of the legislative package including COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus, tax and health care policy extensions and government funding.
On pandemic relief, Grassley said:
“It’s past time Congress acted to provide relief to the families, communities and small businesses suffering because of the pandemic. Senate Republicans have had multiple earlier attempts shot down and filibustered by Democrats. Today we overcame the division that had thus far stymied action.
“I’m glad that major provisions within the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction were part of this relief package. We will extend the federal enhancement to unemployment insurance. I secured important integrity measures to prevent more fraud in the UI benefits, and we included a careful phase out so beneficiaries won’t face the same cliff that many were worri
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The American Telemedicine Association, the Connected Health Initiative and other industry groups issued a letter to Congress on Friday urging legislators to extend temporary telehealth flexibilities until the end of 2021.
The groups, which also include
Healthcare IT News parent company HIMSS, noted that the COVID-19 public health emergency has ushered in an unprecedented expansion to telehealth.
At the same time, however, providers and patients face continued uncertainty about the future of virtual care – made even more tenuous by legislators failure, thus far, to enact permanent changes to telemedicine policies. The continued risk of telehealth flexibilities ending with each subsequent 90-day renewal of the PHE adds additional uncertainty to an already strained health care delivery system. Patients and their health care professionals should not have to worry if they will be able to continue to receive or deliver necessary care, read the letter.
Highlights
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Final Rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which contains updates to the Quality Payment Program (QPP). The MPFS dictates Medicare rates and policies under Part B, while the QPP implements two value-based payment programs: the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs).
Among notable changes, CMS has proposed to make permanent certain telehealth changes that have been implemented in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), confirmed the evaluation and management (E/M) documentation guidelines and payment changes finalized in the 2020 MPFS, and delayed the MIPS Value Pathway (MVP) until the 2022 performance period or later.