How do you treat a disease spread by face-to-face contact when governments, employers, and schools are telling the sick to stay home? How do we protect providers on the frontlines of treatment from contracting the disease themselves?
Millions of Americans hold the answer in their hands—the smartphone. Our phones are powerful computers capable of video visits to providers and apps to monitor health symptoms. Digital medicine services can play a critical role in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak from utilizing telehealth to assess patients without face-to-face exposure for other patients and providers to using artificial intelligence to analyze outbreak patterns.
But the bureaucracy of healthcare statutes that guide the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prevents providers from utilizing remote patient monitoring or digital medicine technologies.
The Connected Health Initiative and its members are at the frontline of creating these tools and advocating for removing and reducing outdated regulations that prevent providers from using digital health in the current COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
COVID-19 and Digital Health Primer (Updated March 29,2023)
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Includes CHI’s key policy actions to date on COVID-19 and future actions for consideration by Congress and regulatory agencies
CMS General Provider Telehealth and Telemedicine Tool Kit- CMS ESRD Provider Telehealth and Telemedicine Tool Kit
- HHS Office for Civil Rights Guidance on COVID-19 and HIPAA: Disclosures to Law Enforcement, Paramedics,
Other First Responders and Public Health Authorities - The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) COVID-19 Resources
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Guidance on Perscribing of Controlled Substances- U.S. Food and Drug Administration Guidance on Regulation of Non-Invasive RPM Devices
- Federal Communications Commission Temporary Waiver of Gift Rules to for the Rural Healthcare Fund and E-Rate Program
- Federal Communications Commission Guidance on the COVID-19 Telehealth Program Application Process
- U.S. Office of the Inspector General Policy Statement Regarding Physicians and Other Practitioners That Reduceor Waive Amounts Owed by Federal Health Care Program Beneficiaries for Telehealth Services During the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak
American Telemedicine Association“CHI is the leading multistakeholder policy and legal advocacy coalition.”
“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.”
Driven by a consensus of stakeholders from across the connected health ecosystem, we aim to realize an environment where Americans can improve their health through policies that allow connected health technologies to enhance health outcomes and reduce costs.
