Resources & Reports

Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published their final rule for “Medicare and Medicaid Programs and the Children’s Health Insurance Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Policy Changes and Fiscal Year 2025 Rates; Quality Program Requirements; and Other Policy Changes.” (Note: This link is to the unpublished version.  The final version will appear in the Federal Register on August 28, 2024).

CCHP’s August Newsletter is here! This month’s topics include – MedPac Report on Telehealth Services: Insights and Implications; Ensuring High-Quality, Cost-Effective Care: BPC’s Telehealth Policy Recommendations; New Lawsuit Challenges California’s Telehealth Restrictions; CHAI Releases New Assurance Standards Guide; Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Defense: Major Implications for Health Policy Legislation and Rulemaking; Latest Policy Developments in CCHP’s Telehealth Policy Finder and Policy Trends Map; Telehealth in New York State; Telemedicine Referrals for Opioid Use Disorder: A Promising Alternative. 

Given that the technical assistance questions the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) receives most often are related to cross-state practice via telehealth, CCHP has created several new resources related to licensure that are now available:

• Out-of-State Telehealth Provider Policies Fact Sheet
• Policy Trend Map
• Cross-State Licensure and Compacts Webinar Recording

On July 16, 2024, at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Telehealth Conference, a new investment into the multi-state social work licensure compact was announced. The $2.5 million HRSA investment will support the launch of the social work compact while also building upon HRSA’s ongoing work on other licensure compacts to improve access to primary care and behavioral health services. The initiative is part of the Licensure Portability Grant Program, which seeks to support state licensure board partnerships to promote the development and implementation of state laws that make telehealth more accessible.

Given the robust amount of content provided in the CCHP newsletter last week (July 16, 2024 edition), some readers may have missed a Change Request to the CMS Manual System issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in June that went into effect July 8, 2024.  Change Request 13582, Billing and Payment for Telehealth Services with Place of Service (POS) 10 was directed at the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC).  MACs are entities that have a contract with CMS to process Medicare Part A and Part B claims for certain territories. When a claim is submitted to Medicare, it goes through the MAC covering the area where the claim is made.  MACs receive instructions and information from CMS regarding relevant policies, including Change Request 13582, which is specific to the use of POS 10.