Alliance seeks policy reform around telehealth, remote monitoring

Former congressional legislators announced the launch of a new alliance to promote policy reform around telehealth and remote patient monitoring.

Former Sens. Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott, and former Sen. John Breaux unveiled the Alliance for Connected Care, a coalition working to raise awareness about telehealth advancements and build a regulatory environment “in which patients have more access to connected care and medical providers are empowered to deliver safe, high-quality care using advanced delivery methods,” according to an announcement.

To date, board members of the alliance include Verizon, WellPoint, CVS, Walgreens, Teladoc, HealthSpot, Doctor on Demand, Welch Allyn, MDLIVE, Care Innovations and Cardinal Health.

Alliance representatives noted that, to date, policies and regulations emphasize prevention, chronic disease management, care coordination and readmission penalties, but government healthcare programs generally do not reimburse home health agencies for remote patient monitoring or pay for patients to check in with care providers from their homes via real-time video.

“To put it in perspective, the legal structure around telehealth was established in 2000 when cell phones were still just phones,” Sen. Daschle said in a statement. “We must ensure that our regulatory environment appropriately balances the exciting advances in technology for patients, while still maintaining safeguards that allow innovation.”