Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand access to telehealth services, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings and sense of Congress
Findings— Congress finds the following:
The use of technology in health care and coverage of telehealth services are rapidly evolving.
Research has found that telehealth services can expand access to care, improve the quality of care, and reduce spending, and that patients receiving telehealth services are satisfied with their experiences.
Health care workforce shortages are a significant problem in many areas and for many types of health care clinicians.
Telehealth increases access to care in areas with workforce shortages and for individuals who live far away from health care facilities, have limited mobility or transportation, or have other barriers to accessing care.
The use of health technologies can strengthen the expertise of the health care workforce, including by connecting clinicians to specialty consultations.
Prior to the COVID–19 pandemic, the utilization of telehealth services in the Medicare program under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.) was low, with only 0.25 percent of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries utilizing telehealth services in 2016.
The COVID–19 pandemic demonstrated additional benefits of telehealth, including reducing infection risk of patients and health care professionals and conserving space in health care facilities, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that telehealth services should be optimized, when available and appropriate, during the pandemic.
Long-term certainty about coverage of telehealth services under the Medicare program is necessary to fully realize the benefits of telehealth.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of Congress that—
health care providers can furnish safe, effective, and high-quality health care services through telehealth;
the Secretary of Health and Human Services should promptly take all necessary measures to ensure that providers and beneficiaries can continue to furnish and utilize, respectively, telehealth services in the Medicare program during and after the conclusion of the COVID–19 pandemic, including modifying, as appropriate, the definition of “interactive telecommunications system” in regulations and program instruction under the Medicare program to ensure that providers can utilize all appropriate means and types of technology, including audio-visual, audio-only, and other types of technologies, to furnish telehealth services; and
barriers to the use of telehealth should be removed.