II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1261
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand access to telehealth
services, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL2, 2025
Mr. S
CHATZ(for himself, Mr. WICKER, Mr. WARNER, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr.
W
ELCH, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. THUNE, Ms. SMITH, Mr.
L
ANKFORD, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. TUBERVILLE, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Mr.
C
OTTON, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. FETTERMAN, Mrs. CAP-
ITO, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. KAINE, Mr. CRAMER, Mrs. SHA-
HEEN, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. MORAN, Mr. LUJA´N, Mr. CAS-
SIDY, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. KING, Mr. JUSTICE, Mr.
C
OONS, Mr. SCHMITT, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Ms. ROSEN,
Mr. H
OEVEN, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. GRASSLEY, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr.
R
OUNDS, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. KELLY, Mrs. FISCHER,
Mrs. G
ILLIBRAND, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. HEINRICH, Ms. COLLINS, Mr.
P
ETERS, Mr. RICKETTS, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. MULLIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr.
G
RAHAM, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mr. DAINES, Mr. WARNOCK, and Mr. BOOZ-
MAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to
the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand
access to telehealth services, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2
‘‘Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective 3
Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2025’’ 4
or the ‘‘CONNECT for Health Act of 2025’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents of 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and sense of Congress.
TITLE I—REMOVING BARRIERS TO TELEHEALTH COVERAGE
Sec. 101. Removing geographic requirements for telehealth services.
Sec. 102. Expanding originating sites.
Sec. 103. Expanding authority for practitioners eligible to furnish telehealth
services.
Sec. 104. Federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics.
Sec. 105. Native American health facilities.
Sec. 106. Repeal of six-month in-person visit requirement for telemental health
services.
Sec. 107. Waiver of telehealth requirements during public health emergencies.
Sec. 108. Use of telehealth in recertification for hospice care.
TITLE II—PROGRAM INTEGRITY
Sec. 201. Clarification for fraud and abuse laws regarding technologies pro-
vided to beneficiaries.
Sec. 202. Additional resources for telehealth oversight.
Sec. 203. Addressing significant outlier billing patterns for telehealth services.
TITLE III—BENEFICIARY AND PROVIDER SUPPORTS, QUALITY OF
CARE, AND DATA
Sec. 301. Beneficiary engagement on telehealth.
Sec. 302. Provider supports on telehealth.
Sec. 303. Ensuring the inclusion of telehealth in measuring quality of care.
Sec. 304. Posting of information on telehealth services.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.
8
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 9
(1) The use of technology in health care and 10
coverage of telehealth services are rapidly evolving. 11
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(2) Research has found that telehealth services 1
can expand access to care, improve the quality of 2
care, and reduce spending. 3
(3) In 2023, 90 percent of patients receiving 4
telehealth services were satisfied with their experi-5
ences. 6
(4) Health care workforce shortages are a sig-7
nificant problem in many areas and for many types 8
of health care clinicians. 9
(5) Telehealth increases access to care in areas 10
with workforce shortages and for individuals who 11
live far away from health care facilities, have limited 12
mobility or transportation, or have other barriers to 13
accessing care. 14
(6) The use of health technologies can strength-15
en the expertise of the health care workforce, includ-16
ing by connecting clinicians to specialty consulta-17
tions. 18
(7) Prior to the COVID–19 pandemic, the utili-19
zation of telehealth services in the Medicare program 20
under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 21
U.S.C. 1395 et seq.) was low, accounting for 0.1 22
percent of Medicare Part B visits in 2019. 23
(8) Telehealth now represents a critical compo-24
nent of care delivery. In 2023, 24 percent of Medi-25
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care fee-for-service beneficiaries received a telehealth 1
service. 2
(9) Long-term certainty about coverage of tele-3
health services under the Medicare program is nec-4
essary to fully realize the benefits of telehealth. 5
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-6
gress that— 7
(1) health care providers can furnish safe, effec-8
tive, and high-quality health care services through 9
telehealth; 10
(2) the Secretary of Health and Human Serv-11
ices should promptly take all necessary measures to 12
ensure that providers and beneficiaries can continue 13
to furnish and utilize, respectively, telehealth serv-14
ices in the Medicare program, and support recent 15
modifications to the definition of ‘‘interactive tele-16
communications system’’ in regulations and program 17
instruction under the Medicare program to ensure 18
that providers can utilize all appropriate means and 19
types of technology, including audio-visual, audio- 20
only, and other types of technologies, to furnish tele-21
health services; and 22
(3) barriers to the use of telehealth should be 23
removed. 24
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TITLE I—REMOVING BARRIERS 1
TO TELEHEALTH COVERAGE 2
SEC. 101. REMOVING GEOGRAPHIC REQUIREMENTS FOR 3
TELEHEALTH SERVICES. 4
Section 1834(m)(4)(C) of the Social Security Act (42 5
U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(C)) is amended— 6
(1) in clause (i), in the matter preceding sub-7
clause (I), by striking ‘‘clause (iii)’’ and inserting 8
‘‘clauses (iii) and (iv)’’; and 9
(2) by adding at the end the following new 10
clause: 11
‘‘(iv) R
EMOVAL OF GEOGRAPHIC RE -12
QUIREMENTS.—The geographic require-13
ments described in clause (i) shall not 14
apply with respect to telehealth services 15
furnished on or after October 1, 2025.’’. 16
SEC. 102. EXPANDING ORIGINATING SITES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1834(m)(4)(C)(iii) of the 18
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(C)(iii)) is 19
amended by striking ‘‘In the case that’’ and all that fol-20
lows through ‘‘September 30, 2025,’’ and inserting ‘‘Be-21
ginning on the date of the enactment of the CONNECT 22
for Health Act of 2025,’’. 23
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(b) CONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 1834(m) 1
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is 2
amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (2)(B)(iii), by striking ‘‘In the 4
case that’’ and all that follows through ‘‘September 5
30, 2025,’’ and inserting ‘‘With respect to telehealth 6
services furnished on or after the date of the enact-7
ment of the CONNECT for Health Act of 2025,’’; 8
and 9
(2) in paragraph (4)(C)(ii)(X), by striking ‘‘, 10
but only for purposes of section 1881(b)(3)(B) or 11
telehealth services described in paragraph (7)’’. 12
SEC. 103. EXPANDING AUTHORITY FOR PRACTITIONERS EL-13
IGIBLE TO FURNISH TELEHEALTH SERVICES. 14
Section 1834(m)(4)(E) of the Social Security Act (42 15
U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(E)) is amended— 16
(1) by striking ‘‘P
RACTITIONER.—The term’’ 17
and inserting ‘‘P
RACTITIONER.— 18
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to clause 19
(ii), the term’’; and 20
(2) by adding at the end the following new 21
clause: 22
‘‘(ii) E
XPANDING PRACTITIONERS ELI -23
GIBLE TO FURNISH TELEHEALTH SERV -24
ICES.— 25
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‘‘(I) IN GENERAL .—Notwith-1
standing any other provision of this 2
subsection, in the case of telehealth 3
services furnished on or after October 4
1, 2025, the Secretary may waive any 5
limitation on the types of practitioners 6
who are eligible to furnish telehealth 7
services if the Secretary determines 8
that such waiver is clinically appro-9
priate. 10
‘‘(II) I
MPLEMENTATION.—In im-11
plementing a waiver under this clause, 12
the Secretary may establish require-13
ments, as appropriate, for practi-14
tioners under such waiver, including 15
with respect to beneficiary and pro-16
gram integrity protections. 17
‘‘(III) P
UBLIC COMMENT .—The 18
Secretary shall establish a process by 19
which stakeholders may (on at least 20
an annual basis) provide public com-21
ment on such waiver under this 22
clause. 23
‘‘(IV) P
ERIODIC REVIEW.—The 24
Secretary shall periodically, but not 25
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more frequently than every 3 years, 1
reassess the waiver under this clause 2
to determine whether such waiver con-3
tinues to be clinically appropriate. The 4
Secretary shall terminate any waiver 5
that the Secretary determines is no 6
longer clinically appropriate.’’. 7
SEC. 104. FEDERALLY QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS AND 8
RURAL HEALTH CLINICS. 9
Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act (42 10
U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is amended— 11
(1) in paragraph (4)(C)(i), in the matter pre-12
ceding subclause (I), by striking ‘‘and (7)’’ and in-13
serting ‘‘(7), and (8)’’; and 14
(2) in paragraph (8)— 15
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 16
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 17
by striking ‘‘During’’ and all that follows 18
through ‘‘September 30, 2025’’ and insert-19
ing the following: ‘‘Beginning on the first 20
day of the emergency period described in 21
section 1135(g)(1)(B)’’; 22
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 23
the end; 24
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(iii) by redesignating clause (iii) as 1
clause (iv); and 2
(iv) by inserting after clause (ii) the 3
following new clause: 4
‘‘(iii) the geographic requirements de-5
scribed in paragraph (4)(C)(i) shall not 6
apply with respect to such a telehealth 7
service; and’’; 8
(B) in subparagraph (B)— 9
(i) in the subparagraph heading, by 10
inserting ‘‘
DURING INITIAL PERIOD’’ after 11
‘‘
RULE’’; 12
(ii) in the first sentence of clause (i) 13
by striking ‘‘during the periods for which 14
subparagraph (A) applies’’ and inserting 15
‘‘during the period beginning on the first 16
day of the emergency period and ending on 17
September 30, 2025’’; and 18
(iii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘Costs 19
associated’’ and inserting ‘‘During the pe-20
riod for which clause (i) applies, costs as-21
sociated’’; 22
(C) by adding at the end the following new 23
subparagraph: 24
‘‘(C) P
AYMENT AFTER INITIAL PERIOD .— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A telehealth serv-1
ice furnished by a Federally qualified 2
health center or a rural health clinic to an 3
individual pursuant to this paragraph on 4
or after October 1, 2025, shall be deemed 5
to be so furnished to such individual as an 6
outpatient of such clinic or facility (as ap-7
plicable) for purposes of paragraph (1) or 8
(3), respectively, of section 1861(aa) and 9
payable as a Federally qualified health cen-10
ter service or rural health clinic service (as 11
applicable) under the prospective payment 12
system established under section 1834(o) 13
or under section 1833(a)(3), respectively. 14
‘‘(ii) T
REATMENT OF COSTS FOR 15
FQHC PPS CALCULATIONS AND RHC AIR 16
CALCULATIONS.—Costs associated with the 17
furnishing of telehealth services by a Fed-18
erally qualified health center or rural 19
health clinic serving as a distant site pur-20
suant to this paragraph on or after Octo-21
ber 1, 2025, shall be considered allowable 22
costs for purposes of the prospective pay-23
ment system established under section 24
1834(o) and any payment methodologies 25
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developed under section 1833(a)(3), as ap-1
plicable.’’. 2
SEC. 105. NATIVE AMERICAN HEALTH FACILITIES. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1834(m)(4)(C) of the So-4
cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(C)), as amend-5
ed by section 101, is amended— 6
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and (iv)’’ and in-7
serting ‘‘, (iv), and (v)’’; and 8
(2) by adding at the end the following new 9
clause: 10
‘‘(v) N
ATIVE AMERICAN HEALTH FA -11
CILITIES.—With respect to telehealth serv-12
ices furnished on or after January 1, 2026, 13
the originating site requirements described 14
in clauses (i) and (ii) shall not apply with 15
respect to a facility of the Indian Health 16
Service, whether operated by such Service, 17
or by an Indian tribe (as that term is de-18
fined in section 4 of the Indian Health 19
Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603)) 20
or a tribal organization (as that term is 21
defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-De-22
termination and Education Assistance Act 23
(25 U.S.C. 5304)), or a facility of the Na-24
tive Hawaiian health care systems author-25
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ized under the Native Hawaiian Health 1
Care Improvement Act (42 U.S.C. 11701 2
et seq.).’’. 3
(b) N
OORIGINATINGSITEFACILITYFEE FORCER-4
TAIN NATIVE AMERICAN FACILITIES.—Section 5
1834(m)(2)(B)(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 6
1395m(m)(2)(B)(i)) is amended, in the matter preceding 7
subclause (I), by inserting ‘‘(other than an originating site 8
that is only described in clause (v) of paragraph (4)(C), 9
and does not meet the requirement for an originating site 10
under clauses (i) and (ii) of such paragraph)’’ after ‘‘the 11
originating site’’. 12
SEC. 106. REPEAL OF SIX-MONTH IN-PERSON VISIT RE-13
QUIREMENT FOR TELEMENTAL HEALTH 14
SERVICES. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1834(m)(7) of the Social 16
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)(7)(B)) is amended— 17
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘, subject 18
to subparagraph (B),’’; 19
(2) by striking ‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The geo-20
graphic’’ and inserting ‘‘The geographic’’; and 21
(3) by striking subparagraph (B). 22
(b) R
URALHEALTHCLINICS.—Section 1834(y)(2) of 23
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(y)(2)) is 24
amended by striking ‘‘prior to October 1, 2025’’. 25
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(c) FEDERALLYQUALIFIEDHEALTHCENTERS.— 1
Section 1834(o)(4)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 2
U.S.C. 1395m(o)(4)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘prior to 3
October 1, 2025’’. 4
SEC. 107. WAIVER OF TELEHEALTH REQUIREMENTS DUR-5
ING PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES. 6
Section 1135(g)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 7
U.S.C. 1320b–5(g)(1)) is amended— 8
(1) in subparagraph (A), in the matter pre-9
ceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘subparagraph (B)’’ 10
and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (B) and (C)’’; and 11
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-12
paragraph: 13
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTION FOR WAIVER OF TELE -14
HEALTH REQUIREMENTS DURING PUBLIC 15
HEALTH EMERGENCIES .—For purposes of sub-16
section (b)(8), in addition to the emergency pe-17
riod described in subparagraph (B), an ‘emer-18
gency area’ is a geographical area in which, and 19
an ‘emergency period’ is the period during 20
which, there exists a public health emergency 21
declared by the Secretary pursuant to section 22
319 of the Public Health Service Act on or 23
after the date of enactment of this subpara-24
graph.’’. 25
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SEC. 108. USE OF TELEHEALTH IN RECERTIFICATION FOR 1
HOSPICE CARE. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1814(a)(7)(D)(i)(II) of 3
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395f(a)(7)(D)(i)(II)) 4
is amended by striking ‘‘during the emergency period’’ and 5
all that follows through ‘‘September 30, 2025’’ and insert-6
ing the following: ‘‘during and after the emergency period 7
described in section 1135(g)(1)(B)’’. 8
(b) GAO R
EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 10
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 11
evaluating the impact of section 1814(a)(7)(D)(i)(II) of 12
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395f(a)(7)(D)(i)(II)), 13
as amended by subsection (a), on— 14
(1) the number and percentage of beneficiaries 15
recertified for the Medicare hospice benefit at 180 16
days and for subsequent benefit periods, to the ex-17
tent such data is available; 18
(2) Federal oversight of the appropriateness for 19
hospice care of the patients recertified through the 20
use of telehealth; and 21
(3) any other factors determined appropriate by 22
the Comptroller General. 23
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TITLE II—PROGRAM INTEGRITY 1
SEC. 201. CLARIFICATION FOR FRAUD AND ABUSE LAWS 2
REGARDING TECHNOLOGIES PROVIDED TO 3
BENEFICIARIES. 4
Section 1128A(i)(6) of the Social Security Act (42 5
U.S.C. 1320a–7a(i)(6)) is amended— 6
(1) in subparagraph (I), by striking ‘‘; or’’ and 7
inserting a semicolon; 8
(2) in subparagraph (J), by striking the period 9
at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 10
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-11
paragraph: 12
‘‘(K) the provision of technologies (as de-13
fined by the Secretary) on or after the date of 14
the enactment of this subparagraph, by a pro-15
vider of services or supplier (as such terms are 16
defined for purposes of title XVIII) directly to 17
an individual who is entitled to benefits under 18
part A of title XVIII, enrolled under part B of 19
such title, or both, for the purpose of furnishing 20
telehealth services, remote patient monitoring 21
services, or other services furnished through the 22
use of technology (as defined by the Secretary), 23
if— 24
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‘‘(i) the technologies are not offered 1
as part of any advertisement or solicita-2
tion; and 3
‘‘(ii) the provision of the technologies 4
meets any other requirements set forth in 5
regulations promulgated by the Sec-6
retary.’’. 7
SEC. 202. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR TELEHEALTH 8
OVERSIGHT. 9
In addition to amounts otherwise available, there are 10
authorized to be appropriated to the Inspector General of 11
the Department of Health and Human Services for each 12
of fiscal years 2026 through 2030, out of any money in 13
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $3,000,000, to 14
remain available until expended, for purposes of con-15
ducting audits, investigations, and other oversight and en-16
forcement activities with respect to telehealth services, re-17
mote patient monitoring services, or other services fur-18
nished through the use of technology (as defined by the 19
Secretary). 20
SEC. 203. ADDRESSING SIGNIFICANT OUTLIER BILLING 21
PATTERNS FOR TELEHEALTH SERVICES. 22
(a) I
DENTIFICATION AND NOTIFICATION OF 23
O
UTLIERBILLERS OFTELEHEALTH.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, using 1
standard unique health identifiers (described in sec-2
tion 1173(b) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 3
1320d–2) reported on claims for telehealth services 4
furnished to individuals under section 1834(m) of 5
such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)), identify physicians 6
and practitioners that demonstrate significant 7
outlier billing patterns (such as coding of telehealth 8
services for inappropriate length of time and inac-9
curate complexity and inappropriate or duplicate 10
billing) for telehealth services or items or services or-11
dered or prescribed concurrent to a telehealth service 12
over a period of time specified by the Secretary. 13
(2) E
STABLISHMENT OF THRESHOLDS .—For 14
purposes of this subsection, the Secretary shall es-15
tablish thresholds for outlier billing patterns to iden-16
tify whether a physician or practitioner is a signifi-17
cant outlier biller for telehealth services or items or 18
services ordered or prescribed concurrent to a tele-19
health service as compared to other physicians or 20
practitioners within the same specialty and geo-21
graphic area. 22
(b) N
OTIFICATION.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall notify 24
physicians and practitioners identified as a signifi-25
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cant outlier biller for telehealth services or items or 1
services ordered or prescribed concurrent to a tele-2
health service under subsection (a). Each notifica-3
tion under the preceding sentence shall include the 4
following: 5
(A) Information on how the physician or 6
practitioner compares to physicians or practi-7
tioners within the same specialty and geo-8
graphic area with respect to billing for tele-9
health services or items or services ordered or 10
prescribed concurrent to a telehealth service 11
under the Medicare program under title XVIII 12
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et 13
seq.). 14
(B) Information on telehealth billing guide-15
lines under the Medicare program. 16
(C) Other information determined appro-17
priate by the Secretary. 18
(2) C
LARIFICATION.—Nothing in this sub-19
section or subsection (a) shall be construed as di-20
recting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serv-21
ices to pursue further audits of providers of services 22
and suppliers outside of those permitted or required 23
under titles XI or XVIII of the Social Security Act, 24
or otherwise under applicable Federal law. 25
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(c) PUBLICAVAILABILITY OFINFORMATION.—The 1
Secretary shall make aggregate information on outlier bill-2
ing patterns identified under subsection (a) available on 3
the internet website of the Centers for Medicare & Med-4
icaid Services. Such information shall be in a form and 5
manner determined appropriate by the Secretary and shall 6
not identify any specific physician or practitioner. 7
(d) O
THERACTIVITIES.—Nothing in this section 8
shall preclude the Secretary from conducting activities 9
that provide physicians and practitioners with information 10
as to how they compare to other physicians and practi-11
tioners that are in addition to the activities under this sec-12
tion. 13
(e) T
ELEHEALTHRESOURCECENTERSEDUCATION 14
A
CTIVITIES.—Section 330I(j)(2) of the Public Health 15
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254c–14(j)(2)) is amended— 16
(1) in subparagraph (F), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 17
the end; 18
(2) in subparagraph (G), by striking the period 19
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 20
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-21
paragraph: 22
‘‘(H) providing technical assistance and 23
education to physicians and practitioners that 24
the Secretary identifies pursuant to section 25
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203(a) of the CONNECT for Health Act of 1
2025 as having significant levels of outlier bill-2
ing patterns with respect to telehealth services 3
or items or services ordered or prescribed con-4
current to a telehealth service under the Medi-5
care program under title XVIII of the Social 6
Security Act, including— 7
‘‘(i) education on practices to ensure 8
coding of telehealth services for appro-9
priate length of time and accurate com-10
plexity; 11
‘‘(ii) education on prevention of inap-12
propriate or duplicate billing; 13
‘‘(iii) information provided in the an-14
nual physician fee schedule rulemaking re-15
garding— 16
‘‘(I) services specified in para-17
graph (4)(F)(i) of section 1834(m) of 18
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 19
1395m(m)) for authorized payment 20
under paragraph (1) of such section; 21
and 22
‘‘(II) the process used to update 23
such services under paragraph 24
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(4)(F)(ii) of such section 1834(m); 1
and 2
‘‘(iv) referral to the appropriate medi-3
care administrative contractor for specific 4
questions that fall outside of the scope of 5
broad best practices.’’. 6
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 8
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 9
(2) T
ELEHEALTH SERVICE .—The term ‘‘tele-10
health service’’ has the meaning given that term in 11
section 1834(m)(4)(F) of the Social Security Act 12
(42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(F)). 13
(3) P
HYSICIAN; PRACTITIONER.—The terms 14
‘‘physician’’ and ‘‘practitioner’’ have the meaning 15
given those terms for purposes of section 1834(m) of 16
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)). 17
TITLE III—BENEFICIARY AND 18
PROVIDER SUPPORTS, QUAL-19
ITY OF CARE, AND DATA 20
SEC. 301. BENEFICIARY ENGAGEMENT ON TELEHEALTH. 21
(a) R
ESOURCES, GUIDANCE, ANDTRAININGSES-22
SIONS.—Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act (42 23
U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is amended by adding at the end the 24
following new paragraph: 25
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‘‘(10) RESOURCES, GUIDANCE, AND TRAINING 1
SESSIONS.— 2
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 6 3
months after the date of the enactment of this 4
paragraph, the Secretary, in consultation with 5
stakeholders, shall issue resources, guidance, 6
and training sessions for beneficiaries, physi-7
cians, practitioners, and health information 8
technology software vendors on best practices 9
for ensuring telehealth services are accessible 10
for— 11
‘‘(i) individuals with limited English 12
proficiency, including instructions on how 13
to— 14
‘‘(I) access telehealth platforms; 15
‘‘(II) utilize interpreter services; 16
and 17
‘‘(III) integrate telehealth and 18
virtual interpreter services; and 19
‘‘(ii) individuals with disabilities, in-20
cluding instructions on accessibility of the 21
telecommunications system being used for 22
telehealth services, engagement with bene-23
ficiaries with disabilities prior to, during, 24
and after the furnishing of the telehealth 25
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service, and training on captioning and 1
transcripts. 2
‘‘(B) A
CCOUNTING FOR AGE AND OTHER 3
DIFFERENCES.—Resources, guidance, and 4
training sessions issued under this paragraph 5
shall account for age and sociodemographic, ge-6
ographic, literacy, cultural, cognitive, and lin-7
guistic differences in how individuals interact 8
with technology.’’. 9
(b) S
TUDY ANDREPORT ONTACTICSTOIMPROVE 10
B
ENEFICIARYENGAGEMENT ON TELEHEALTH.— 11
(1) S
TUDY.—The Secretary of Health and 12
Human Services shall, to the maximum extent fea-13
sible, collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative 14
data on strategies that clinicians, payers, and other 15
health care organizations use to improve beneficiary 16
engagement on telehealth services (as defined in sec-17
tion 1834(m)(4)(F) of the Social Security Act (42 18
U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(F))), with an emphasis on un-19
derserved communities, such as the use of digital 20
navigators, providing patients with pre-visit informa-21
tion on telehealth, caregiver engagement, and train-22
ing on telecommunications systems, and the invest-23
ments necessary for health care professionals to ef-24
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fectively furnish telehealth services, including the 1
costs of necessary technology and of training staff. 2
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 3
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 4
shall submit to Congress and make available on the 5
internet website of the Secretary of Health and 6
Human Services a report containing the results of 7
the study under paragraph (1), together with rec-8
ommendations for such legislation and administra-9
tive action as the Secretary determines appropriate. 10
(c) F
UNDING.—There are authorized to be appro-11
priated such sums as necessary to carry out the provisions 12
of, including the amendments made by, this section. 13
SEC. 302. PROVIDER SUPPORTS ON TELEHEALTH. 14
(a) E
DUCATIONALRESOURCES AND TRAININGSES-15
SIONS.—Not later than 6 months after the date of enact-16
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 17
Services shall develop and make available to health care 18
professionals educational resources and training sessions 19
on requirements relating to the furnishing of telehealth 20
services under section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act 21
(42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)) and topics including— 22
(1) requirements for payment for telehealth 23
services; 24
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(2) telehealth-specific health care privacy and 1
security training; 2
(3) utilizing telehealth services to engage and 3
support underserved, high-risk, and vulnerable pa-4
tient populations; and 5
(4) other topics as determined appropriate by 6
the Secretary. 7
(b) F
UNDING.—There are authorized to be appro-8
priated such sums as necessary to carry out this section. 9
SEC. 303. ENSURING THE INCLUSION OF TELEHEALTH IN 10
MEASURING QUALITY OF CARE. 11
Section 1890A of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 12
1395aaa–1) is amended by adding at the end the following 13
new subsection: 14
‘‘(h) M
EASURINGQUALITY OFTELEHEALTHSERV-15
ICES.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 17
after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 18
the Secretary shall review quality measures to en-19
sure inclusion of measures relating to telehealth 20
services, including care, prevention, diagnosis, pa-21
tient experience, health outcomes, and treatment. 22
‘‘(2) C
ONSULTATION.—In conducting the review 23
and assessment under paragraph (1), the Secretary 24
shall consult external technical experts in quality 25
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measurement, including patient organizations, pro-1
viders, and experts in telehealth. 2
‘‘(3) R
EVIEW AND ASSESSMENT .—The review 3
and assessment under this subsection shall— 4
‘‘(A) include review of existing and under 5
development quality measures to identify meas-6
ures that are currently inclusive of, and meas-7
ures that fail to account for, telehealth services; 8
‘‘(B) identify gaps in areas of quality 9
measurement that relate to telehealth services, 10
including health outcomes and patient experi-11
ence of care; and 12
‘‘(C) assess how to effectively streamline, 13
implement, and assign accountability for health 14
outcomes for quality measures for telehealth 15
services across health care settings and pro-16
viders. 17
‘‘(4) T
ECHNICAL GUIDANCE .—The Secretary 18
shall issue technical guidance on the following for 19
health care providers and other stakeholders, as de-20
termined appropriate by the Secretary: 21
‘‘(A) How to stratify measures by care mo-22
dality and population to identify differences in 23
health outcomes. 24
‘‘(B) The use of uniform data elements. 25
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‘‘(C) How to identify and catalogue best 1
practices related to the use of quality measure-2
ment and quality improvement for telehealth 3
services. 4
‘‘(D) Other areas determined appropriate 5
by the Secretary. 6
‘‘(5) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 7
date of the enactment of this subsection, the Sec-8
retary shall submit to Congress and post on the 9
internet website of the Centers for Medicare & Med-10
icaid Services a report on the review and assessment 11
conducted under this subsection.’’. 12
SEC. 304. POSTING OF INFORMATION ON TELEHEALTH 13
SERVICES. 14
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-15
ment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter, the Secretary 16
of Health and Human Services shall post on the internet 17
website of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 18
information on— 19
(1) the furnishing of telehealth services under 20
the Medicare program under title XVIII of the So-21
cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.), described 22
by patient population, type of service, geography, 23
place of service, and provider type; 24
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(2) the impact of telehealth services on expendi-1
tures and utilization under the Medicare program 2
for the most recent 4 quarters for which Medicare 3
claims data is available; and 4
(3) other outcomes related to the furnishing of 5
telehealth services under the Medicare program, as 6
determined appropriate by the Secretary. 7
Æ
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