[TAO] Fwd: Acting Health & Human Services Secretary Signals Extension of PHE through 2021

Tue Feb 2 10:06:50 PST 2021

This would provide much needed certainty as providers move forward with
telehealth plans.

Best,
Cathy

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Center for Connected Health Policy <info at cchpca.org>
Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 8:14 AM
Subject: Acting Health & Human Services Secretary Signals Extension of PHE
through 2021
To: <csbritain at gmail.com>

The Acting Secretary for HHS indicated that the Department intends to
extend the declaration of the PHE through at least the end of 2021.
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The Acting Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=6eabab1e3c&e=537bebe328>
(HHS)
indicated in a recent letter
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=3fb6826fd1&e=537bebe328>
to
state Governors that the Department intends to extend the declaration of a
Public Health Emergency (PHE) through at least the end of 2021. The Public
Health Service Act
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grants
HHS broad authority to issue a PHE declaration that remains active for a
90-day period. In 2020, HHS took a wait-and-see approach to reauthorizing
the PHE declarations it issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This
meant reevaluating the PHE declaration based on the evolving situation and
reauthorizing the PHE declaration near the end of each 90-day period. In
addition, the Acting Secretary indicated in the letter that the Department
will provide states a 60-day notice prior to the termination of the PHE
declaration.

In the Acting Secretary’s own words, this shift is intended to bring
“predictability and stability” to states and their public health programs,
many of which have tied expiration of their telehealth expansions to the
federal PHE declaration. The letter specifically highlights the
flexibilities that the PHE declaration affords for the provision of
telemedicine services to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries. For state
Medicaid programs, this will also create some budget certainty with an
extension of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate increase
set to expire at the end of the PHE.

Current Medicare telehealth flexibilities, such as the removal of the rural
requirement and expansion of certain procedure codes and telephone visits,
are all scheduled to sunset once the PHE declaration is rescinded. Medicare
expanded additional Category 3 procedure codes in the 2021 Physician Fee
Schedule
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=77d88745f3&e=537bebe328>
that
will sunset at the end of the calendar year in which the PHE declaration is
terminated (see CCHP’s Physician Fee Schedule Fact Sheet
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=8e2582158d&e=537bebe328>
for
more information). Based on the Acting Secretary’s letter, this could mean
that these flexibilities and expanded services will all sunset by the end
of 2021 unless Congress passes legislation to codify them.

The announcement is also likely to have an impact on some private payer’s
temporary telehealth policies. A recent Center for Connected Health Policy
report titled, *An Analysis of Private Payer Telehealth Coverage During the
COVID-19 Pandemic*
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=45c888a36d&e=537bebe328>,
found
that several of the largest national insurers that temporarily expanded
their telehealth coverage or waived cost sharing for telehealth services
tied their expiration to the federal PHE declaration. Under the Families
First Coronavirus Response Act
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=91cfbdc9f3&e=537bebe328>
(FFCRA),
private payers are also required to cover telehealth services that are
associated with a COVID-related diagnosis through the end of the PHE.

For more information, view the full letter
<https://cchpca.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c9fa99b7520aedfca5c453103&id=aa329d052a&e=537bebe328>
from the Acting Health & Human Services Secretary.

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-- 
Catherine S. Britain, Executive Director
Telehealth Alliance of Oregon
csbritain at gmail.com
541-910-7366
www.ortelehealth.org
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