Spending Deal Asks HHS To Study Telehealth Use, Recommend Reforms

The bipartisan omnibus appropriations legislation unveiled early Wednesday morning (March 9) directs HHS, CMS and the department’s Office of Inspector General to study telehealth utilization during the Covid-19 pandemic and use the results to recommend legislative and administrative reforms, including ways to prevent fraud, by June 15, 2023. Telehealth lobbyists have counted on studies to boost their efforts to advocate for permanent expansion of telehealth policies once the spending bill’s temporary extensions of the telehealth waivers end. The funding deal...