Advancing telehealth: AOA’s advocacy for equitable health care

The AOA recently sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) stressing the importance of maintaining payment parity for telehealth and in-person services. The letter highlights a commitment to ensuring telehealth services, including both audio-visual and audio-only modalities, receive appropriate payment. These ongoing advocacy efforts reflect an understanding of the challenges faced by patients in rural and underserved areas, the necessity of telehealth for accessible care, and the operational realities of physician practices. The letter discusses several issue areas, including:

Practice models and the typical patient
Service inputs
Coding considerations
And more

The AOA will continue to work with CME to advance telehealth policy that benefits physicians and patients.