{"id":27950,"date":"2019-07-30T15:26:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T21:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=369311"},"modified":"2019-07-30T15:26:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T21:26:50","slug":"summit-countys-federal-delegation-pushes-for-expanding-innovating-telehealth-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/summit-countys-federal-delegation-pushes-for-expanding-innovating-telehealth-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County\u2019s federal delegation pushes for expanding, innovating telehealth services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Federal legislators representing Summit County are trying to pass legislation that would expand and improve the use of telehealth services.<\/strong>
Shutterstock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Telehealth is the new unexplored frontier in medicine. The technology, which allows patients and health providers to conduct virtual appointments by video link without the need for a physical consultation, is being touted as a way to make up for deficiencies in rural and urban health provider networks, including provider shortages here in Summit County and other mountain communities.<\/p>\n

This week, a new push was made in Congress to expand telehealth services available under Medicare, which has yet to broadly adopt or implement telehealth or digital services into its care coverage or reimburse providers who use telehealth in their treatment.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s 2nd Congressional District Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat, joined Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, in sponsoring H.R. 4013, the \u201cTelehealth Innovation and Improvement Act,\u201d in the House on Friday, touting the bill as \u201cbipartisan and bicameral\u201d legislation. Sens. Cory Gardner, D-Colo., and Gary Peters, D-Mich, previously sponsored the bill in the Senate as S. 773, and it has languished in the Senate\u2019s finance committee since March.<\/p>\n

The bill would allow hospitals to test telehealth services through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center, an existing program that tests new service models to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditures. Telehealth, which can be half the cost of a traditional doctor visit, is being pushed by backers as win-win for cost-burdened consumers and overbooked providers.<\/p>\n

The bill would direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to evaluate the cost effectiveness of different models of telehealth services. If a telehealth model improves quality of care without increasing costs \u2014 or even saving money \u2014 for Medicare, then that telehealth model would be covered by Medicare.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor constituents across my district, and especially those in rural areas, this bill will mean more access to quality health care, better health outcomes and a more efficient health care system overall,\u201d Neguse was quoted as saying in a news release. \u201cThis bill will help grow access to these critical services while also improving quality of care. I am pleased to work with Rep. Curtis to bring together values from both sides of the aisle to enhance access to care for citizens across our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology provides great potential to enhance connectivity between health care professionals and their patients, and I\u2019m pleased to work with willing partners on both sides of the aisle to find health care solutions for rural communities across Utah and around the country,\u201d Curtis said in the release.<\/p>\n

Telehealth is already used by federal agencies for medical and behavioral health outreach. That includes the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has a \u201cmobile vet center\u201d program that acts as a counseling center on wheels for veterans in remote areas like Summit.<\/p>\n

Using a secure video feed and a soundproof trailer room for consultations, the mobile vet centers can help veterans in rural areas without a Department of Veterans Affairs presence to connect with counselors and specialists. Telehealth can be used to diagnose a variety of behavioral health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

This will be Gardner and Peters\u2019 third attempt to get the bill passed in the Senate, where it failed to gain traction after being introduced in 2015 and 2017.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal legislators representing Summit County are trying to pass legislation that would expand and improve the use of telehealth services.Shutterstock FRISCO \u2014 Telehealth is the new unexplored frontier in medicine. The technology, which allows patients and health providers to conduct virtual appointments by video link without the need for a physical consultation, is being touted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 13:15:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}