This Week’s ATA Brief: Scaling Smart Podcast, Policy Town Hall, Inpatient Experience Lab, and More.

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

Dear ATA Community,

I’m excited to share a preview of what’s ahead at the ATA Insights Summit 2025—our immersive, invitation-only event designed for healthcare leaders driving virtual care strategy and execution.

This year’s Summit brings together powerhouse ATA and Center of Digital Excellence (CODE) member health systems, including MedStar Health, Ochsner Health, WVU Medicine, and more, for a highly collaborative and hands-on experience. Over the course of three days in Orlando, participants will engage in eight closed-door Strategy Labs, each focused on solving real-world challenges across priority areas, including hybrid hospital models, AI across the continuum, digital maternity care, oncology care, and more.

We’re also thrilled to offer attendees the opportunity to take part in an on-site tour of Florida Medical Center, hosted by Orlando Health leaders. This tour will give participants a firsthand look at virtual care in action, including innovations in telestroke, smart rooms, RPM, hospital-at-home, and virtual nursing programs.

This isn’t your typical conference—it’s a working summit built to generate actionable tools, share field-tested frameworks, and spark new partnerships among senior healthcare leaders. Whether you’re scaling enterprise-wide virtual care or tackling a specific transformation initiative, you’ll leave with tangible insights you can implement immediately.

Special thanks to our Summit underwriters—Andor, hellocare, Artisight, AvaSure, and VirtuAlly—for their generous support in making this experience possible. Click here if you are interested in joining these underwriters.

Apply to attend today! Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando. 

Melissa Park
Vice President, Business Development & Strategy, ATA

hellocare

Epic MyChart Bedside TV Now Runs Natively on hellocare.ai Devices, Available in Epic Toolbox

Epic’s MyChart Bedside TV now runs natively on hellocare.ai devices, available through the Epic Toolbox’s Bedside TV Hardware category. This plug-and-play integration lets health systems seamlessly support patient access to their medical records, team communication, and virtual visits on any hospital TV without additional hardware or logins. Already deployed in over 70 health systems, the platform also supports Epic CAL/ECAL workflows and cloud-based device management for a smoother inpatient experience. Read More »

MUSC

Virtual Nursing Brings Bedside Satisfaction for RNs at MUSC

MUSC's pilot Virtual Nursing program—launched in late 2023—allows remote nurses to handle admissions, discharge teaching, medication review, and patient education via carts in patient rooms, freeing bedside RNs to focus on hands-on care. Since inception, over 4,100 patients have used the service, saving nearly 7,843 nursing hours while boosting both staff efficiency and patient satisfaction. Read More »

NCQA

NCQA Releases Virtual Care White Papers for Payers and Care Delivery Organizations

The demand for virtual care is growing: Post-pandemic, 10% of outpatient visits are conducted virtually—pre-pandemic, only 1% were. The white papers outline the current state of virtual care, and how payers and care delivery organizations can design and implement high-quality virtual care programs. Read More »

For Payers: High-Quality Virtual Care for Health Plans: Enhancing Your Members' Experience.
For Care Delivery Organizations: How Standardization Can Elevate the Quality of Virtual Care Services.

Have news to share? Submit to our team here.

Reengineer the Inpatient Experience — Apply to Join the Executive Strategy Lab
ATA Insights Summit | November 16–18 |  Orlando, FL. 

Smart hospital transformation starts here. Join an exclusive group of senior health system leaders for a closed-door Strategy Lab focused on reengineering inpatient care through digital infrastructure, virtual care models, and next-gen workflows. This is more than discussion—it’s peer-driven, action-oriented collaboration designed to accelerate your smart hospital roadmap.

You’ll leave with proven models for emergency care, virtual nursing, and teleStroke, investment frameworks for every budget, and implementation strategies already working across member systems. Space is limited—apply now to secure your seat at the table.

Whether you're extending staff capacity, improving throughput, or enhancing patient satisfaction, you'll work alongside fellow executives to identify what's achievable now and build your roadmap for what's next. 

Facilitated by: 

Season 2 Episode 10
Scaling Smart: How ATA CODE Leaders Are Building Enterprise-Wide Digital Care

In this conversation, Dr. Kvedar sits down with Carla Dehmer, Senior Director of Telemedicine and Digital Solutions at UPMC, and Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure and a founding sponsor of the ATA’s Center of Digital Excellence (CODE). Together, they share how health systems are navigating the shift from fragmented telehealth efforts to integrated, enterprise-wide digital care models. Listen to Episode »

Carla Dehmer
Senior Director of Telemedicine and Digital Solutions,  UPMC

Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN
Chief Clinical Officer, AvaSure

July 29, 2025 | 1:00 PM ET | Virtual
CODE Roundtable: Clinical Command Center Models

Join us for an interactive session exploring how leading health systems are building and scaling clinical command centers to streamline care, enhance collaboration, and drive better outcomes.

Allyson Gordon of MedStar Health and Samantha Guseyn-Zade of ATA will facilitate a dynamic exchange between experts who have designed, built, and optimized clinical command centers—alongside leaders who are actively navigating the journey today. Register Here »

Planning an Event for Telehealth Awareness Week?

We want to highlight it! Share your event title, date, time, and link with us at bcadillo@americantelemed.org, and we’ll include it in our official Telehealth Awareness Week event lineup.

Policy Town Hall - Medicare Provider Fee Schedule 2026 |  July 31 at 12 PM ET

Your Input Requested on the 2026 Draft Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS)

Join our ATA Government Relations Special Interest Group for an all-member Town Hall on the just-released 2026 draft Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). Your input gathered during this meeting will help to inform our comment letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on important telehealth and digital health provisions in the proposed rule, as well as items not included in the draft. Register Here »

Upcoming SIG Meetings

• Pediatric Telehealth SIG Meeting
   Thursday, July 31
   2:00 PM ET
• Home Testing SIG Meeting
   Tuesday, August 5
   2:00 PM ET

• Telemental Health SIG Meeting
   Wednesday, August 6
   1:00 PM ET
• Ocular Telehealth SIG Meeting
   Thursday, August 7
   12:00 PM ET

ATA Action Urges New DEA Administrator To Take Urgent Action

On July 22, Terry Cole, a longtime federal prosecutor and former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, was confirmed as the new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In a press release, ATA Action urged Administrator Cole to take urgent action to establish a permanent framework for the remote prescribing of controlled substances that protects both patients and providers while enhancing access to critical and lifesaving prescriptions and treatments.

ATA Action also co-led a stakeholder letter to Administrator Cole, signed by 200+ organizations, calling for a permanent special registration framework that supports both patient access and safety.

Read our press release here.

Sign Medicare Stakeholder Letter Urging Congress To Act!

Temporary waivers providing access to telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries and the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program are set to expire on September 30, 2025 unless Congress acts now. Please join us and other telehealth stakeholders and sign this letter, urging Congressional leadership to make Medicare telehealth flexibilities permanent -- or at least approve a two year extension at a minimum -- to ensure stability for patients, providers and healthcare systems.