WASHINGTON, DC (June 25, 2019): Health Innovation Alliance rallied nearly a dozen mental health and telemedicine experts on a coalition letter urging needed fixes to H.R. 1301, the Mental Health Telemedicine Expansion Act.
This bill is slated for consideration in tomorrow’s House Ways and Means Committee markup as part of the broader H.R. 3417, the BETTER Act.
H.R. 1301 seeks to expand behavioral telemedicine services to Medicare beneficiaries – something that Health Innovation Alliance and others co-signers on the letter strongly support – but includes troubling provisions that place burdensome and unnecessary barriers to care in the process.
Specifically, these industry leaders join Health Innovation Alliance in expressing strong concern over the bill’s requirements for an in-person visit prior to accessing telehealth services, and the requirement for an in-person followup visit after using such services.
As the letter explains: “These requirements are not necessary for clinicians to provide high-quality behavioral health services that adhere to current standards of care. Rather, these requirements simply would impose needless barriers in access to care for the many Medicare beneficiaries with mental health conditions who otherwise immediately could benefit from the availability of such services.”
Read Health Innovation Alliance’s coalition letter on H.R. 1301 below.
Co-signers include the Association of Behavioral Health and Wellness, Centerstone, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), InTouch Health, Mental Health America, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Council for Behavioral Health, Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America (SARDAA), and Teladoc Health.