The America
n Hospital Association (AHA) has fully embraced the move towards telehealth and dedicated an entire section of their website to information regarding policies, reimbursement, and promoting support, etc. Given the AHA’s broad reach throughout the nation, this is a huge step forward for the expansion and acceptance of telemedicine as being vital to the future of healthcare.
The page is categorized into four sections and offer links to information such as federal and state legislation and regulatory initiatives, state and regional telehealth networks, case studies, presentations, external research, etc.
Being a long time supporter of telehealth, the AHA presented a two-part report in January 2015 along with a letter to Congress encouraging a reduction of financial and technical barriers put up by Medicare in order to further telemedicine progression. “At that time, the organization said telehealth ‘has moved into the mainstream,’ with some 52 percent of U.S. Hospitals using the technology platform in 2013 and another 10 percent moving into the arena,”an article from mHealthIntelligence states.
The AHA also called upon the Senate Finance Committee in the beginning of this year, “…to make telehealth a standard of care for people with chronic conditions, rather than a separate path of care, and urged lawmakers to be consistent in revising current outdated policies, rather than creating newer, more complicated ones that don’t create a clear path to reimbursement.”
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