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Heavy lake-effect snow dumps more than 5 feet over parts of Great Lakes region; Study: Fish farms consume far more wild fish than previously thought; Maryland's federal workers prepare to defend their jobs; Federal investments help bolster MA workforce training programs.

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A plan described as the basis for Trump's mass deportations served a very different purpose. Federal workers prepare to defend their jobs if they lose civil service protections, and Ohio enacts bathroom restrictions on transgender people.

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Residents in Colorado's rural communities face challenges to recycling, climate change and Oregon's megadrought are worrying firefighters, and a farm advocacy group says corporate greed is behind high food prices in Montana.

Clock ticking on Medicare telehealth provisions

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Wednesday, July 17, 2024   

Telehealth has been key to health care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but some of the flexibilities for this type of care for Medicare patients could expire soon.

A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center detailed how Congress could improve telehealth. Without action from Congress, telehealth provisions for Medicare expire at the end of this year.

Maya Sandalow, senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said telehealth is especially important for rural states like South Dakota.

"We know that patients have to travel way farther than folks in urban areas to access care," Sandalow observed. "Hospitals are shutting down and struggling to stay afloat. And so, telehealth is really an important part of this puzzle when it comes to helping people living in rural areas to access care."

Sandalow noted Congress looks likely to give a two-year extension to telehealth provisions but she also urged members to consider ways to ensure people can access care.

If the extension happens, the report recommended Congress consider the cost of telehealth versus in-person care, the possibility of tracking telehealth companies' quality of care and making some policies permanent.

Jonathan Neufeld, director of the Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, said one thing at stake is the ability for certain providers to bill Medicare for their services -- physical and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists, for example -- who were not able to before the pandemic.

"Specifically, federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics," Neufeld pointed out. "That was a big one that allowed a huge portion of the safety net providers in the country to bill Medicare for telehealth encounters."

Disclosure: The Bipartisan Policy Center contributes to our fund for reporting on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Health Issues, Hunger/Food/Nutrition, Mental Health. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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