The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog

Last week I wrote about the big changes to Medicare telehealth coverage during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). But Medicare coverage is only part of the story.

Here’s an overview of several other temporary telehealth policy changes and federal telehealth programs you should know about. (This is not a comprehensive list but rather an overview of some of the most notable actions taken so far. Before engaging in any telehealth encounter and relying on a given regulation, I recommend you check the appropriate website or reach out to your regional Telehealth Resource Center for the most up-to-date information.)

Since the founding of the United States of America, we have made significant strides in advancing health justice, but the accompanying fight to ensure that every individual has a fair opportunity to achieve their optimal level of health is shaping up to be one of the defining challenges of our time. One of the major barriers to accomplishing this goal is the lingering presence of health inequalities — the differences in health and health care between population groups that occur across the life course and in many dimensions, including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability status and sexual orientation.

If you have any involvement in providing healthcare, you are aware that Congress, multiple federal agencies, and states have made immense changes in healthcare regulation – especially in telehealth regulation – for the duration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Here is a brief summary of what is temporarily changed in terms of Medicare telehealth regulations – and it’s a lot!

The percent of eligible Arizona prescribers EPCS enabled is 23 percent above the national average as of February 2020. Learn what EPCS is and how it benefits both patients and providers statewide.

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) categorized the 2019 Novel Corona Virus COVID- 19 disease outbreak “a public health emergency, of international concern, day after day “hitting closer to home.”

But on February 28 edition of Tech Trends offered more than a glimmer of hope: