Summary
As federal policymakers continue to discuss the future of telehealth post-pandemic, a number of bills have been introduced and re-introduced on ways to expand access to telehealth under Medicare. To support a fuller understanding of these developments, WHG has collated a list of the key telehealth bills that have been introduced during the current legislative session with some additional commentary on the trajectory of the federal telehealth discussion.
In addition, WHG has developed a section-by-section summary of the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021. While the bill has been introduced in previous legislative sessions, the current version is updated to reflect the changes to the telehealth landscape as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CONNECT for Health Act of 2021 bill serves as an important marker of how Congress might move to permanently expand telehealth post-pandemic. However, some lawmakers and stakeholders have also emerged in support of a more measured and time-limited expansion of telehealth as a way to study its longer-term effects on equity, outcomes, quality, and access before enacting permanent expansions. Continued conversations on this issue will continue to reveal how Congress may act on the future of telehealth, which may further crystallize by the year’s end.