eHI joined more than 70 organizations in urging Congress to extend the policy changes that allowed 35 million Americans with high-deductible health plans coupled with Health Savings Accounts (HDHP-HSAs) to receive telehealth benefits from their employer or insurer pre-deductible. If Congress does not act, these flexibilities will expire at the end of the year.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many statutory and regulatory restrictions on the use of telehealth were relaxed in order to facilitate the on-going provision of health care while in-person interactions for non-essential care were halted. Many states issued emergency orders to temporarily waive requirements that a clinician must be licensed in the same state where their patient is located at the time of care.

As many of these emergency waivers end, many patients and providers are wondering how current state-based clinician licensing systems can and will transform to meet the needs of a modern, technology-enabled health care system. On this webinar, you will hear from telehealth providers, clinician licensing experts, and patient representatives on current clinician licensing systems, challenges to providing and receiving health care across state lines, as well as how some states and clinician types are addressing these issues to facilitate cross-state telehealth and improve licensure portability.

Speakers:
 

Brian Hasselfeld, MD
Medical Director, Digital Health and Telemedicine
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Rebecca Fotsch
Director, State Advocacy & Legislative Affairs
National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)

Lisa Robin, MLA
Chief Advocacy Officer
Federation of State Medical Boards

Heidi Ross
Director of Policy
National Organization for Rare Disorders

Catherine Pugh
Assistant Vice President, Policy
eHealth Initiative

As reimbursement policies for telehealth loosened due to the pandemic, more vulnerable and underserved communities were accessing health care services. This provided an opportunity to further utilize technology to address social determinants of health – such as safe and affordable housing, unemployment benefits, and immigration status – through the use of Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs).

eHI joined with the Partnership for a Connected Illinois for a discussion on MLPs, how they are addressing social determinants of health, and the importance of continuing utilization of telehealth to best serve vulnerable and underserved communities.

Speakers:

Nichole J. Mirocha, DO
 

Nichole J. Mirocha, DO is an Associate Professor  and Associated Residency Program Director of Clinic Family & Community Medicine with Southern Illinois School of Medicine. She works at the SIU Center for Family Medicine, an FQHC and patient-centered medical home serving the Springfield and surrounding communities. She is a founding member of the Comprehensive Care Clinic, a multidisciplinary care clinic designed for patients with complex medical and social needs. The clinic takes referrals mainly from outside agencies within Springfield which includes but is not limited to Mental Health Court, Springfield Police department, local hospitals, and Community Health Workers. Many of the patients within the CCC have history of significant mental health conditions, live in poverty, suffer from severe chronic medical conditions, and lack the social support needed to thrive. Goals of the CCC ultimately are to improve patient satisfaction and engagement in primary care, reduce utilization of emergency services, and overall improve health and well-being of the population within the Springfield area.

Shelly Skinner
 

Shelly Skinner is focused on increasing access to justice through technology. She serves as a judge for a local Teen Court that implements restorative justice principles for youth who have been arrested for committing certain criminal offenses. In addition, she is working on establishing a pediatric medical-legal partnership in San Diego. Shelly is a member of Legal Services Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council, and she holds appointments on the San Diego County Bar Association’s Technology Committee and Legal Ethics Committee. Previously, Shelly worked as a federal attorney for 12 years, handling traditional labor law matters and ethics issues.

Keegan Warren-Clem, J.D., LL.M.
 

Keegan Warren-Clem, J.D., LL.M., is a Practice Area Manager at Texas Legal Services Center, overseeing the Legal Aid for Survivors of Sexual Assault program, the Crime Victims program, and the Veteran Legal Assistance Program, and directly managing the Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLP) department. Through MLPs at multiple healthcare sites, she works collaboratively with health care providers to improve health outcomes by bringing patient-centered legal and structural expertise into the delivery of health care. An adjunct professor with appointments at The University of Texas School of Law, McCombs School of Business, and School of Design and Creative Technologies, Keegan also challenges students and residents to explore connections between health and law. Currently, Keegan is engaged in research that takes an epidemiological approach to legal interventions as a concrete means for addressing social determinants of health, and she is a 2020 National Academies of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholar. Keegan is a veteran of the Army National Guard and is also a member of the Order of St. Joan of Arc, the highest civilian award given by the Army Armor and Cavalry Associations. In her spare time, she rows crew.

Sara Agate, JD, MPH

Sara is a collaborative leader with a focus on access to justice and healthcare services who brings innovative, inclusive solutions to the table. With over a decade of expertise in healthcare and public health policy and law, and legislative advocacy, her passion for technology has led to noteworthy change in both the public and private sectors.

Candice Stearns, JD

Candice is the Medical Legal Partnership Staff Attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid’s Northern Regional Office located in Springfield, Illinois.  She is a graduate of Southern Illinois School of Law. Prior to law school, Candice served as a domestic violence legal advocate with the Macoupin County Public Health Department assisting domestic violence survivors in obtaining orders of protection and accompanying survivors to court proceedings. During her time as a legal advocate, she developed the desire to become an attorney and enrolled in law school.  Candice joined Land of Lincoln Legal Aid in 2018, where her practice centered on representing domestic violence survivors in the Northern Regional Office’s ten-county service territory in orders of protection, custody, and divorce matters.  Candice transitioned to her role as the Northern Regional Office’s Medical Legal Partnership attorney in July of 2021.

Candice is passionate about helping improve the quality of lives of her clients and the communities she serves.  In Fall 2020, Candice received an award from Dove, Inc., located in Decatur, Illinois, in recognition of her compassionate service and commitment to assisting domestic violence survivors in the Macon County community.  She serves as a committee member on the Illinois Access to Justice Commission’s Protective Orders Subcommittee in charge of the development, review, and drafting of Protective Orders forms to be published on the Illinois Supreme Court Standardized Forms website. She is an appointed member of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Human and Civil Rights Section Council, a member of the Illinois 6^th Judicial Circuit Family Violence Coordinating Council, and a committee member of the Chicago Bar Foundation’s 2021 Legal Aid Recruitment and Retention Study Advisory Committee.  Candice is also active in the Sangamon County, Central Illinois Women’s, and Decatur Bar Associations. 

This webinar is co-sponsored by 

eHI staff met with members of our Policy Steering Committee and SDOH workgroup to develop a formal response to the Congressional SDOH Caucus’s Request for Information. To learn more about the Caucus, click here. 

eHI joined other digital health associations in sending a letter to Senate Appropriators in support of increased funding for Telehealth Resource Centers, which have been level-funded since 2006 despite an exponential growth in the use of telehealth. You can find a copy of the letter here.

On Monday, eHI submitted a comment letter in response to the Calendar Year 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule. The letter includes comments on proposals related to telehealth reimbursement, remote therapeutic monitoring, and the Promoting Interoperability Program. 

On Wednesday, eHI hosted a joint policy briefing/SDOH work group meeting for members. Melissa Quick, co-chair of Aligning for Health, was our guest speaker and provided a current state-of-play of SDOH policy in DC. The most timely update was on the launch of the bipartisan Congressional SDOH Caucus, which took place on Wednesday. At the launch, the Caucus co-chairs issued a request for information, which you can find here.

On Tuesday, July 13, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule that when finalized, will set Medicare Part B reimbursement policies for next calendar year. Most notably for eHI members, CMS includes proposals to implement provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 that expanded reimbursement for telemental health services, reimburse for new remote therapeutic monitoring codes, and postpone the compliance date for electronic prescribing of controlled substances, among other proposed changes. Download an eHI-prepared summary of the health IT-related proposed changes below.

On June 28^th, eHI submitted a comment letter in response to the Fiscal Year 2022 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have proposed a number of changes to the Promoting Interoperability Program, on which eHI provided comment.