The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) released its bi-annual summary of state telehealth policy changes for Spring 2022

The Center for Connected Health Policy’s (CCHP) Spring 2022 analysis and summary of telehealth policies is based on its online Policy Finder. It highlights the changes that have taken place in state telehealth policy between the Fall 2021 Summary Report, and Spring 2022. The research for this Spring 2022 executive summary was conducted between January and April 2022. This summary offers policymakers, health advocates, and other interested health care professionals an overview of telehealth policy trends throughout the nation. For detailed information by state, see CCHP’s telehealth Policy Finder which breaks down policy for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) is releasing its Spring 2022 Summary Report of the state telehealth laws and Medicaid program policies catalogued in CCHP’s online Policy Finder tool. Prior to Spring 2021, this same information was released at least twice a year in the form of a 500+ page PDF report titled, “the State Telehealth Laws and Reimbursement Report” since 2012. With the transition to the online Policy Finder, users are able to navigate each state’s updated information as soon as CCHP makes it available. Additionally, the information from the online tool can be exported for each state into a PDF document using the most current information available on CCHP’s website. CCHP plans to continue to produce these bi-annual summary reports of the status of telehealth policies across the United States in the Spring and Fall each year to provide a snapshot of the progress made in the past six months. CCHP is committed to providing timely policy information that is easy for users to navigate and understand through our Policy Finder. The information for this summary report covers updates in state telehealth policy made between January and mid-April 2022.

Spring 2022

Mental Health vs. Primary Care: How Americans Are Using Telehealth

Social workers and psychiatrists are among the providers Americans are frequently visiting via telehealth, highlighting the pandemic’s continued mental health impact.

April 19. 2022

Over-the-Phone-Therapy: Rand Report Findings

Preference for Over-the-Phone Therapy Visits
A recently published RAND Corporation report confirms telehealth can improve healthcare access and high utilization of over-the-phone-therapy visits, also known as audio-only telehealth visits. Suggestions regarding reimbursement are included. However, the report cautions that more research is needed to ensure the equitable delivery of quality healthcare when using audio-only telehealth.

May 8, 2022

The changing landscape of telehealth: 4 federal legislative developments

Federal lawmakers have introduced four bills that look to update, continue, renew and expand telehealth access for patients and providers.

Below are recent federal developments for policy, regulatory and legal changes related to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to JD Supra:

May 24, 2022

Emergency telemedicine poised to grow in pandemic’s new phase

Emergency medicine is likely not the first specialty that comes to mind when thinking about the clinical areas that can benefit greatly from telehealth. But this digitally enabled mode of health care delivery that took off at the pandemic’s onset was helping in the emergency medicine setting before COVID-19 and will only continue to grow.

May 23, 2022