Tuesday, January 26, 2021
On January 15, 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the initial pilot projects selected for the Connected Care Pilot Program (“Pilot Program”) for telehealth services. The list includes 14 pilot projects spanning 11 states and more than 150 treatment sites, totaling $26.6 million awarded of the allotted $100 million under the Pilot Program.
The First Round of Funded Projects
The 14 selected pilot projects cover a broad range of services aimed at establishing and improving telehealth services, also referred to as connected care services, especially for low-income and veteran patients.
The awarded funds were awarded primarily to programs that intend to provide internet connectivity, broadband access, remote patient monitoring and video visit capabilities to low income and rural communities.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
In our December 7, 2020 Blog Post, “Permanent Expansion of Medicare Telehealth Services,” we discussed the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (the “Final Rule”) and the regulatory changes made therein by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“
CMS”) to expand Medicare telehealth coverage within the confines of existing Medicare statutory law. The Final Rule was first posted on December 2, 2020 and was formally published in the Federal Register on December 28, 2020.
In amending the Medicare regulations within the Final Rule, CMS wrote that without Congressional action, it was difficult for CMS to make permanent the regulatory telehealth waivers that the Trump Administration and CMS implemented at the outset of the current COVID-19 public health emergency (the “