This Week’s ATA Brief: CODE Roundtable; UC Health's Telehealth Program; Strategic Innovation Labs; Physician Fee Schedule, and more.

For leaders making digital integral to how care is accessed, delivered, and scaled.

Dear ATA Community,

We’re really excited about an upcoming CODE Roundtable on July 29 at 1 PM ET—and wanted to share what we’ve been working on!

This one dives into clinical command centers and how leading health systems are using them to streamline care, enhance collaboration, and drive better outcomes. We’ve assembled an exceptional group of experts who will explore everything from co-location and workflow integration to staffing, infrastructure, and change management. Expect an interactive conversation between those who have built these models and those currently working to bring them to life.

It’s been great putting this session together with such forward-thinking leaders—we know it’s going to be a valuable conversation for anyone exploring or scaling command center efforts.

Can’t wait to share it with you!

Sammi Guseyn-Zade
Client Services, ATA

Access TeleCare

The Return of Investment (ROI) of TeleNeurology: Better Care, Better Margins  

TeleNeurology delivers strong clinical and financial benefits by enabling quicker access to neurological specialists, improving patient outcomes—especially in time-sensitive cases like stroke. It reduces unnecessary patient transfers, shortens hospital stays, and increases care efficiency. These improvements drive stronger margins and demonstrate that investing in TeleNeurology supports both better care and better business. Read More »

Kathy Duckett, MSN, BSN, RN, K. Duckett Consulting

Telemedicine Today: Integral to Healthcare  

Kathy Duckett, ATA Member and Co-Chair of the Home and Community Telehealth SIG, highlights the growing role of telemedicine in improving access, outcomes, and care efficiency in a recent article. She underscores benefits like reduced hospitalizations and real-time symptom assessment, with a focus on remote patient monitoring (RPM) in home and hospice care for managing chronic conditions such as heart failure, COPD, and diabetes. Read More »

RPM in Proposed CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule Rule

CMS’s proposed CY 2026 Physician Fee Schedule is a major win for digital health—expanding telehealth, refining RPM/RTM codes, and extending flexibility for online care programs. ATA Action’s Alexis Apple called it “a strong, positive step forward,” but flagged concerns over a provision requiring providers to list their home address, citing safety and administrative burdens. Read More »

OSF Launches Mobile Maternity Unit in Partnership With Meridian

OSF HealthCare and Meridian Health Plan launched a mobile maternity unit to bring prenatal and postpartum care to underserved areas in Central Illinois. Funded by a $1.5 million grant, the van offers services like ultrasounds, lab work, and mental health screenings. The goal is to improve access and outcomes for Medicaid patients in maternal health deserts. Read More »

Winning the AgeTech Future: Strategic Insights for Navigating The Senior Market

Best Buy Health’s “Winning the AgeTech Future” study outlines how simple, trusted technology paired with human support can help seniors live independently. With a focus on in-home services, intuitive devices, and strategic partnerships, the report highlights key opportunities to meet the growing needs of the aging population. Read More »

Have news to share? Submit to our team here.

CODE Roundtable: Clinical Command Center Models

Learn how leading health systems build and sustain clinical command centers to boost efficiency, coordination, and outcomes.

July 29, 2025 | 1:00 PM ET | Virtual
Join us for an engaging CODE virtual round table designed for health systems looking to enhance operational efficiency and patient care through co-located command centers. In this session, organizations with established command centers will share best practices for:

• Co-location and team design to boost collaboration among clinical teams and secure stakeholder buy-in.
• Physical and technical infrastructure for smooth in-hospital or remote command center operations.
• Communication and workflow integration across teams, overcoming tool fragmentation for real-time info sharing.
• Operational and staffing models ensuring 24/7 coverage with balanced team ratios and effective scheduling.
• Leadership and governance structures to gain executive support and align goals.
• Change management to overcome barriers and ensure lasting adoption of command centers.
• Measurement and benchmarking to monitor KPIs like safety, efficiency, and outcomes.

FACILITATOR

Allyson Gordon
Clinical Director Telehealth and Innovation, MedStar Health

FACILITATOR

Sammi Guseyn-Zade
Client Services, ATA

Mae Centeno
COO/CNO, Virtual Care Center and Virtual Care Delivery,

Texas Health Resources

Laura Christopherson, EdD, MBA, CSPO
Digital Practice Enablement Manager, Mayo Clinic

Brandi Clark
VP, Digital Care, OSF OnCall, OSF Healthcare

Amy Hassell
Chief Nursing Officer, UCHealth

Penni Kyte
Digital Care Strategy Officer, Ballad Health

Donna Phinney
Director Duke Telehealth Office, Duke University Health System

Kaylie Weltsch
Nurse Manager, Virtual Care Command Center, CoxHealth

Telehealth Technology SIG
Overview of UCHealth Telehealth Program, Patient Journey

An in-depth look at UCHealth’s telehealth program, followed by a review of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance’s (DTA) patient odyssey work. The session also explored how DTA’s efforts could complement and enhance the Technology SIG’s ongoing initiatives around mapping and improving the patient journey. Watch Session »

Upcoming SIG Meetings

• Remote Monitoring SIG Meeting
   Tuesday, July 22
   3:00 PM ET

• Pediatric Telehealth SIG Meeting
   Thursday July 31
   2:00 PM ET

ATA Insights Summit
November 16–18 | Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, Orlando, FL. 

Accelerate your digital transformation at the ATA Insights Summit 2025. Join top health system leaders and industry innovators for Strategic Innovation Labs—closed-door, solution-focused working sessions tackling today’s most urgent care delivery challenges. 

Strategy Lab #1: Reengineering the Inpatient Experience 

This working session delivers actionable strategies, implementation roadmaps, and peer-tested solutions developed by and for health system leaders who are actively modernizing their inpatient operations through telemedicine, digital infrastructure, and consumer-driven innovation. 

Why this matters now: Member health systems across the country are prioritizing inpatient transformation because every patient stay is a defining moment for loyalty, outcomes, and competitive positioning. 

Join us for this new format designed to move the industry forward—together.

Medicare 2026 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule Reflects Positive Steps Forward for Virtual Care

Published on July 14, the CY2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule includes a number of positive provisions addressing ATA Action’s top priorities, including updates to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP), expansion of digital mental health treatment (DMHT) codes to include digital therapeutics for ADHD, and additional payment codes for remote monitoring:

• Changes to MDPP, including ATA Action priorities to eliminate requirements for online-only suppliers to maintain in-person delivery capabilities and extend temporary COVID-era Medicare flexibilities through 2029.
• Includes codes for 2-15 days of data collection over a 30-day period for remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services, and proposes reimbursement amounts for each.
• Simplifies the Medicare telehealth service list review process and proposes new payment codes to the telehealth list for CY 2026.
• Adopts permanent definition of “direct supervision” that allows real-time audio/video presence.
• Removes telehealth frequency limitations for subsequent inpatient visits, nursing facility visits, and critical care consultations.
• Expands last year’s groundbreaking new payment policies for DMHT services to include devices used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and clarifies that the practitioner billing for a DMHT device need not be the practitioner who diagnosed the patient with a mental health disorder.

However, the proposed rule does not address a temporary COVID-era provision that allows providers to report their affiliated practice address rather than their home address on Medicare billing and enrollment forms, which is a significant issue for many of our members.

Stakeholders have until September 12 to submit comments. Most imminently, we will begin meeting with our members and like-minded groups to hear feedback that will help shape our response to CMS. ATA Action plans to release its industry-leading letter a few weeks in advance of the deadline to ensure members and others may use our language as they see fit.  

Read our press release here.

Senate Committee Hearing Tackles Health Data Privacy

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing this week on healthcare cybersecurity and data privacy, debating whether to amend HIPAA or establish a new federal privacy framework to address gaps in coverage for consumer health data, including data from wearables. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) questioned whether HIPAA should be expanded to include wearable data, while others argued that HIPAA is not suitable for regulating broader tech platforms. ATA Action submitted a statement for the record.

Congress Returns to Normal Legislative Session

Following passage of the historic reconciliation bill, there is heightened attention on the soon-to-expire Medicare telehealth flexibilities, which will terminate on September 30, 2025, unless Congress acts soon. Policymakers in Washington need to hear from you! Help us urge Congress to take immediate action to ensure patients across the country will have uninterrupted access to essential telehealth services after the looming deadline.

You are welcome to use and share our easy-to-use advocacy tool to contact your members of the US House and US Senate and encourage them to support telehealth extensions after September 30, 2025. Please share using this link.  

Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) DMHT Code Awareness Update