Both houses of Congress have introduced legislation that would provide Medicare reimbursement to home health agencies that deliver audio and video telehealth services during COVID-19. This is a major priority.
Today, we ask that you use our online Legislative Action Center to write New York’s Senators and your Member of Congress to pass this critical bill. It takes less than a minute to do.
As we note in our Action Center campaign, “this technology is vital in the pandemic. It extends home care’s reach to patients who are socially isolated, anxious, and in need of more complex services, especially the growing number of patients discharged from hospitals to home care with severe post-COVID-19 care needs.”
We also cite recent HCA data collected in a survey of providers showing that the number of home health providers having to turn to telehealth in the pandemic has doubled, from 22 percent of providers before the pandemic to 46 percent today, yet there’s no Medicare reimbursement to support this service.
Thank you to all of the providers who answered this survey, which supports key advocacy messaging.
Please act on this advocacy messaging today, and urge your staff to do the same.