This Week’s ATA Brief: Digital Infrastructure Tool, Ascension Doubles Down, Awareness Week Recordings

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

Ascension

Why Ascension Is Doubling Down on Digital Innovation

Duke University Health System

Duke’s Chief Nurse Exec Sees Pros and Cons for AI in Nursing

Duke University Health System’s Chief Nurse Executive, Theresa McDonnell, recognizes both the promise and pitfalls of integrating AI into nursing. Under her leadership, the system has rolled out AI-driven staffing tools that help predict patient demand, reduce nurse overtime by 23%, and boost retention by 18%, alongside virtual reality training programs to improve workplace safety. Still, she emphasizes that for AI to be a net positive, it must be co-designed with frontline nurses, preserve trust, and enhance—not replace—the human relationships central to nursing. Read More »

House Resolution Designates Telehealth Awareness Week

Representative Buddy Carter has introduced a House resolution officially designating the week of September 15, 2025, as Telehealth Awareness Week. Co-sponsored by Representatives Doris Matsui, David Schweikert, and Mike Thompson, the resolution underscores telehealth’s role in expanding access to care for older adults and rural communities. Carter also recently introduced the Telehealth Modernization Act, which seeks to preserve Medicare telehealth access and extend flexibilities to federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. Read More »

Reengineering Inpatient Care Delivery: ROI, Infrastructure & Sustainable Implementation

Scaling digital health across inpatient settings is no small task. At the ATA Insights Summit (Nov. 16–18, Orlando), two exclusive Inpatient Experience Strategy Labs will bring national leaders together to tackle ROI, infrastructure, sustainability, and experience, turning promising pilots into enterprise-wide models.

• Lab 1: Systems & Operations – Build compelling ROI cases, standardize workflows, and drive culture change for sustainable implementation.
• Lab 2: Experience & Measurement – Link outcomes, experience, and engagement to financial sustainability with meaningful KPIs and integrated business cases.

Take home: ROI templates, implementation playbooks, change management guides, benchmarking frameworks, and a peer learning network.

• Labs are capped at ~30 participants—Apply Today!
• November 16–18, 2025 | Orlando, FL

Note: Opportunities available for solution providers, tech platforms, pharma, and DTx partners via underwriting.

Not all communities have equal access to technology, and this can affect telehealth, remote work, and access to vital online resources. The Digital Infrastructure Score measures a community’s capacity and readiness for digital engagement. Its easy-to-use Mapping Tool lets you quickly:

• Identify areas with limited digital access

• Plan and target telehealth and resource deployment

• Compare readiness across ZIP codes, counties, and states

• Connect infrastructure gaps to social and economic indicators

Access the Tool »

So much is happening in Washington around virtual care—new policies, shifting priorities, big decisions. EDGE 2025 is where you’ll get the real answers on what’s next and what truly matters. Register by September 30 to secure early savings.

Confirmed Sessions

Hardwiring Telehealth for 2030: A Look Back to Leap Forward
Digital health leaders Claudia Tucker and Robert Baratta open EDGE 2025 with a fireside chat reflecting on the policy battles, breakthroughs, and turning points that reshaped virtual care, and what must be done to secure its future through 2030.

Licensure and Interstate Compacts: Policy Update
Experts share the latest updates on licensure portability and interstate compacts, exploring what’s changing, where barriers remain, and the implications for cross-state telehealth.

Inside the Mind of the Experts: A Candid Roundtable on Telemedicine Law & Policy
ATA Chair Nathaniel Lacktman leads a no-slides, no-fluff roundtable with top legal minds, tackling the most pressing issues in telehealth law, from corporate practice of medicine to prescribing, privacy enforcement, and pharma partnerships.

Virtual Foodcare Coalition: Building a National Policy Agenda
ATA Action convenes leaders in food-as-medicine and digital health to co-create the first national policy agenda for Virtual Foodcare, advancing reimbursement, integration, and equitable access.

AI-Powered Telehealth: Navigating the New Policy Frontier
A panel of experts unpacks how AI is reshaping telehealth delivery, policy, and ethics, covering the ATA’s updated AI Principles, the latest legislative developments, and real-world lessons from AI implementation.

FEDERAL POLICY UPDATES

12 Days and Counting: ATA Action Supports Bipartisan Legislative Vehicles to Maintain Access to Telehealth

We continue to have discussions with key policymakers in Congress and the Trump administration, urging them to take action before access to telehealth services is cut off on September 30. To that end, we support and endorse the short-term continuing resolution language put forward by U.S. House leadership that extends Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the Acute Hospital Care at Home program through November 21, 2025.

We are also coming out in support of two bipartisan bills from the House Ways & Means Committee that would extend the Acute Hospital Care at Home program for five years and help close the Medicare coverage gap for FDA-designated breakthrough devices. These bipartisan bills represent important steps toward expanding access to care and medical innovation for Medicare beneficiaries.

While we continue to push for permanency, we are imploring members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, as well as the Trump Administration, to work quickly to put in place yet another temporary extension for telehealth, so that telehealth does not get caught in dynamics around a government shutdown.

Read our recent statement urging policymakers to remove telehealth from the ”endless loop of uncertainty” before access to virtual care lapses in 12 days.

Member Input Needed: FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee Seeks Public Comment on Generative AI-enabled Mental Health Devices

On November 6, the FDA’s Digital Health Advisory Committee is convening to discuss the benefits, risks to health, and risk mitigations that might be considered for new Generative    AI-enabled digital mental health devices, including premarket evidence and postmarket monitoring considerations. The public is invited to submit comments, and ATA Action is preparing comprehensive comments and requesting to give an oral presentation at this meeting. Read the official notice from the Food and Drug Administration for more information.

To inform our response, we are asking ATA members to provide your input, concerns and priorities on the topic. We encourage members of the Advancing Digital Health Coalition to provide their input at our next meeting on September 23. ATA members can send feedback to Andy Molnar (amolnar@ataaction.org) no later than September 26.

Funding Applications Now Available for the Rural Health Transformation Program

Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the five year $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). States will have until November 5 to submit their one-time application for funding. The NOFO notes that the 2025 awards will be determined by December 31.

CMS will be holding two webinars on the RHTP applications: on Friday, September 19, and September 25. For more information on the grant opportunity, visit the RHTP website.

ATA Action has completed state surveys or RFIs and sending a form letter to encourage state governments to include telehealth, digital therapeutics, virtual foodcare and other ATA member priorities in their proposals.

State Policy Updates

California Legislative Session Wraps Up 

Last week saw the conclusion of California's state legislative session with several bills that ATA and ATA Action were following, which are advancing to the Governor's desk or being defeated. One area where ATA Action engaged heavily this session was on private investment in healthcare. ATA Action secured crucial clarifying improvements to SB 351 and advocated to raise concerns with provisions in AB 1415 regarding transaction review. Both of these bills have gone to the Governor.

ATA Action also secured significant improvements to AB 1503, the Board of Pharmacy Reauthorization bill, successfully striking proposed language that would have subjected pharmacies working with telehealth platforms to heightened requirements. This bill also advanced to the Governor's desk.

Following ATA Action advocacy, SB 503, was amended to remove the requirement for developers to undertake a third-party audit and the legislation has become a two-year bill and will be revisited next year following stakeholder input in the interim. ATA Action will continue to monitor the bills that went to the Governor’s desk and engage as appropriate. 

November 16-18, 2025 | Orlando, FL
ATA Insights Summit
This ATA Insights Summit brings together healthcare executives to co-create implementation frameworks, operational tools, and strategic blueprints for digital transformation. Each focus area is shaped by collaborative sessions with clinical, operational, and digital leaders. Learn More and Apply »

December 10-12, 2025 | Washington, DC
ATA EDGE Policy Conference
The place where digital policy meets care model transformation.
Shape care reimbursement, licensing, and workforce policy, alongside the systems and stakeholders defining what comes next. Learn More »

May 12-15, 2026 | Orlando, FL
NEXUS 2026
The premier event dedicated to advancing innovation in digital health and care delivery. Bringing together experts, clinicians, C-suite leaders, researchers and investors, Nexus fosters collaboration, explores innovation, and provides tools to drive meaningful change. 

• Apply to Speak at NEXUS 
• Share Your Research at NEXUS