Small and Rural
The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet held a hearing today on “Advancing Telehealth Through Connectivity.” Witnesses all agreed that telehealth is helping to lower costs and improve outcomes for patients with limited access to medical…
Requiring critical access hospitals that are less than 15 miles from another hospital to revert to the hospital prospective payment system would generate modest savings for Medicare but likely be disruptive to the communities that depend on these hospitals for their health care, according to a…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Friday issued guidance for critical access hospitals and rural health centers with respect to the Physician Quality Reporting System 2013 reporting year and 2015 payment adjustment. Physicians and other eligible professionals must report certain…
The AHA Friday applauded the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s proposal to shorten the Clinician and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient experience survey and agreed that the changes would reduce patient and provider burden.
Legislation to revamp Medicare’s telehealth legislation should address several statutory restrictions that stand in the way of modernizing coverage and payment for telehealth services, the AHA last week told a congressional working group that recently circulated a draft proposal.
In a Jan.…
Essentia Health, an integrated health care delivery system based in Duluth, Minn., provides telehealth services to patients at 26 of its roughly 80 rural health clinics, small rural hospitals and long-term care facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Its goal is to provide…
Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jon Tester (D-MT) today introduced a Senate companion to the Critical Access Hospital Relief Act (S. 258/H.R. 169), AHA-supported legislation that would remove the 96-hour physician certification requirement as a condition of payment for critical access hospitals.
The AHA today called a House discussion draft of legislation to improve Medicare’s coverage and payment for telehealth services “a step in the right direction,” and applauded the members of a House Energy & Commerce Committee working group on telehealth for taking on the issue.