CHIME Statement of Support for CONNECT for Health Act

CHIME Statement of Support for CONNECT for Health Act

Most Comprehensive Telehealth Legislation in Congress

Ann Arbor, MI, June 15, 2023 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is pleased to offer our support for the bipartisan Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act. The CONNECT for Health Act was first introduced in 2016 and is considered the most comprehensive legislation on telehealth in Congress. Since 2016, several provisions of the bill were enacted into law or adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, including provisions to remove restrictions on telehealth services for mental health, stroke care, and home dialysis.

This significant piece of legislation highlights several lasting and holistic changes to our Medicare telehealth payment and coverage policies. Three provisions from the CONNECT for Health Act were signed into law in 2020. The updated version of the CONNECT for Health Act builds on that progress and includes new and revised provisions that will help more people access telehealth services. Specifically, the legislation 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 healthcare professionals to utilize telehealth services;
  • Remove unnecessary in-person visit requirement 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 healthcare providers.

The pandemic opened the door to not only expanding the ways patients access care but also improved much needed access to care by leveraging technology to bring patients face-to-face virtually via video and phone when necessary. CHIME members have made critical investments in telehealth and remote patient monitoring technologies and have witnessed patients across the nation reap the benefits from greater access facilitated by telehealth technologies. 

“The CONNECT for Health Act will ensure patients continue to have ongoing access to their clinicians; removing many obstacles some patients face accessing needed services while putting protections in place to ensure federal resources are effectively used,” said CHIME President and CEO, Russ Branzell. “CHIME is pleased to see the legislation expand originating sites to include the home and other sites, allow more healthcare professionals to deliver care virtually, and repeal the unnecessary in-person visit requirement for telemental health visits. We applaud Senators Schatz (D-HI), Wicker (R-MS), Cardin (D-MD), Thune (R-SD), Warner (D-VA), and Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Representatives Thompson (D-CA), Matsui (D-CA.), Schweikert (R-AZ), and Johnson (R-OH) for their leadership on this important piece of legislation and are encouraged this could pave the way for other payers to make similar changes.”

The CONNECT for Health Act currently has the support of more than 150 organizations, including CHIME and 60 Senators. A summary of the bill and the full list of endorsing organizations are available here.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 5,000 members in 56 countries plus two U.S. territories and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME and its three associations provide a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate, exchange best practices, address professional development needs and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

 

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Contact

Calli Dretke
Vice President & Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
CHIME                                                                                                           
734.412.6255
[email protected]