Today, 340 companies signed a letter sent to Congress to urge leaders to make COVID-19-related telehealth flexibilities permanent.
Representing all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the signees are seeking to stop the potential for telehealth flexibilities to disappear, should Congress fail to act before the COVID-19 public health emergency expires, according to a news release.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Congress waived statutory barriers to allow for expanded access to telehealth, offering federal agencies the flexibility to allow healthcare providers to deliver care virtually. The letter says that those flexibilities will immediately go away if Congress doesn’t act.
The 340 stakeholders who signed the letter urged Congress to remove obsolete restrictions on the location of the patient so care can be accessed at home, maintain and enhance Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) authority to determine appropriate providers for…