Day 9: The Telehealth Shutdown
We have entered the second week of the government shutdown, and it appears that Congressional Democrats and Republicans are not even close to reaching agreement on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to restore government funding. The Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the Hospital and Home program remain shuttered and as anticipated, we are now seeing commercial insurers pulling back on telehealth reimbursement as a direct result of the lack of telehealth coverage for the Medicare population. This untenable situation is forcing many healthcare providers to make the difficult choice between suspending services or continuing virtual care in hopes of eventual reimbursement.
ATA Action is urging Congress and the Administration to work together to enact a short-term solution to quickly restore these bipartisan telehealth flexibilities during the shutdown. We are also calling on policymakers in Washington to pass a retroactive telehealth reimbursement provision, ensuring that providers and hospital systems are compensated for telehealth services delivered during this period.
Make Your Voice Heard! Our grassroots advocacy tool, which makes it easy to reach out to your Members of Congress urging them to extend the telehealth flexibilities, remains active. Feel free to share far and wide!
Encouraging Words from CMS Administrator Oz
While attending the Aspen Institute in Washington earlier this week, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz discussed the ongoing sunset of telehealth services as a result of the government shutdown and requested that lawmakers codify telehealth flexibilities to support the ongoing integration of virtual care within the healthcare system. "Even telehealth is being held up by the shutdown,” Oz said. “But a lot of folks don't have confidence in longevity of these issues. We should codify these. This should be part of what we do going forward, and you can bet on it. You can build businesses around it.”
ATA Action: Keeping the Issues Front-and-Center
Media outlets remain highly interested in the real-world impact the telehealth shutdown is having on providers and patients, and how healthcare organizations are addressing this challenging time.
This week, our policy team continues to hold interviews with business, trade and consumer media outlets, including ABC News, Medscape, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, numerous television stations across the country, Stateline and others. In addition to major news coverage last week in TIME Magazine, Bloomberg, Fierce Healthcare, POLITICO, PBS NewsHour, The Washington Post and more, Kyle Zebley and Alexis Apple are also featured in a number of news stories the past few days, including ABC7 TV in Los Angeles, Health Leaders, Becker’s Hospital Review, Conversations in Healthcare, and Law360.
Our message in the media and on Capitol Hill remains loud and clear:
- Congress and the Administration must act immediately
- Minimize disruption to patient care and ensure the telehealth shutdown is as brief as possible
- Secure retroactive payment for providers
- Make telehealth flexibilities and Hospital at Home permanent
Advancing Digital Health Coalition is Leading on Key Priorities
ATA Action’s Advancing Digital Health Coalition continues to be a leading voice in the global digital health sector, building on the work of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance over the past seven years. The coalition engages in policy advocacy efforts to support innovative health technologies including digital therapeutics, Prescription Drug-Use-Related Software (PDURS), remote monitoring devices, digital diagnostics, AI, and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and Software in a Medical Device (SiMD).
Top priorities for our Advancing Digital Health Coalition include:
Prescription Drug-Use-Related Software (PDURS)
- Engaging policymakers on Capitol Hill through a series of targeted PDURS briefings and meetings.
- The PDURS task group has finalized its recommendations and edits to the PDURS draft guidance for formal submission FDA.
Digital Health & AI Innovation
- Providing expert input at the FDA, where Andy Molnar serves on the Digital Health Advisory Committee focused on generative AI in mental health.
- Advancing federal legislation, including the Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act, to expand patient access and reimbursement pathways.
- Collaborating with Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to accelerate adoption of digital mental health treatments.
- Submitting a formal comment on the Section 232 National Security Investigation to ensure continued access to critical MedTech imports and protect the digital health supply chain.
Contact Andy Molnar (amolnar@ataaction.org) to learn more and join the coalition!