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Welcome to the American College of Physicians' new and improved Legislative Action Center (LAC). This improved advocacy tool enables ACP to send out action alerts, inform our members of critical health policy issues, and put our members in contact with their legislators. |
Background
Bipartisan telehealth legislation, the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act (CONNECT for Health Act) of 2023, has been reintroduced that would expand coverage of telehealth services through Medicare, by making telehealth flexibilities established during the COVID-19 public health emergency permanent. Doing so would improve health outcomes and make it easier for patients to connect with their doctors. This bill would make permanent many of the temporary Medicare telehealth flexibilities set to expire at the end of 2024.
Specifically, the CONNECT for Health Act of 2023 would:
- Permanently remove all geographic restrictions on telehealth services and expand originating sites to include the home and other sites;
- Permanently allow health centers and rural health clinics to provide telehealth services;
- Allow more eligible health care professionals to utilize telehealth services;
- Remove unnecessary in-person visit requirements for telemental health services;
- Allow for the waiver of telehealth restrictions during public health emergencies; and
- Require more published data to learn more about how telehealth is being used, impacts of quality of care, and how it can be improved to support patients and health care providers.
Action Requested: Please email your members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor and pass the CONNECT for Health Act of 2023 (S.2016/ H.R.4189). A sample email message has been provided for you that includes blank fields where you can personalize the letter.
Please contact Shuan Tomlinson at stomlinson@acponline.org with any questions about this campaign. Thank you for your continued advocacy.
Stay tuned for future updates as our advocacy on this issue continues. Follow us on Twitter @advocatesIM and Facebook/acpinternists and check our Legislative Action Center often.