WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) cosponsored the bipartisan Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act that would expand coverage of telehealth services through Medicare, make permanent COVID-19 telehealth opportunities, improve health outcomes and make it easier for patients to connect with their doctors. This legislation would help enable rapid access to high-quality health care for Wyoming citizens from the comfort of their own homes.
“Telehealth made medical professionals more easily accessible to people in rural Wyoming communities during the pandemic, many of whom had struggled to find quality health care for far too long,” said Senator Lummis. “The tremendous benefit of telehealth was one of the rare bright spots of the pandemic and it only makes sense to clear regulatory red tape to keep the innovation going.”
The CONNECT for Health Act has the support of more than 150 health and wellness organizations.
The full text of the bill is available here.
What the bill does:
- Permanently remove all geographic restrictions on telehealth services and expands originating sites to include the home and other sites;
- Permanently allow health centers and rural health clinics to provide telehealth services;
- Allow more eligible health care professionals to utilize telehealth services;
- Remove unnecessary in-person visit requirement for telemental health services;
- Allow for the waiver of telehealth restrictions during public health emergencies; and
- Require more published data to learn more about how telehealth is being used, impacts of quality of care and how it can be improved to support patients and health care providers.
###