Last week, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott and former Sen. John Breaux led the launch of the Alliance for Connected Care, a coalition of key stakeholders and leading health IT companies focused on promoting policies and legislation that would advance the use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
In recent years, telemedicine and related programs have realized benefits from improved access to care to increased care quality to reduced costs. However, the current regulatory environment is "biased" against technology-based care models, says Sen. Daschle, mostly because legislation around telehealth issues has not kept up with the pace of technological change.
'The last time these regulations were changed was 15 years ago, and you can imagine how much [technological] change there's been in 15 years' time," says Sen. Daschle. "When we did the announcement for this, we showed what a cell phone looked like back then — you could hardly recognize it."
The goal of the Alliance is to raise awareness among policy leaders about emerging technologies and their potential to improve the healthcare system, as well as advocate for laws and regulations that foster its use across care settings.
Current healthcare reform efforts encourage providers to prevent readmissions and improve consumer engagement, objectives that could be aided by the use of telehealth and at-home monitoring. However, legal and regulatory barriers at both the state and federal level are hindering their use.
The Alliance is looking to remove geographic restrictions to telehealth, such as state physician licensing rules that would prevent a physician from practicing across state lines. The Alliance also plans to advocate for Medicare reimbursement for a variety of telehealth services, wanting to "make sure reimbursement [for telehealth services] is provided in cases where it could be a factor in whether or not people get these services," says Sen. Daschle.
The Alliance is "important to me because healthcare is important to me," says Sen. Daschle. "Looking at the opportunities we have in healthcare, this kind of technology offers great promise… this could be truly transformative."
Joining the Senators' efforts are a variety of influential players in the health IT market, including Verizon, WellPoint, CVS, Walgreens, Teladoc, HealthSpot, Doctor on Demand, Welch Allyn, MDLIVE, Care Innovations and Cardinal Health.
"There's a fundamental belief we have that a rising tide raises all boats," says Sean Slovenski, CEO of remote care management solutions company Care Innovations, describing why his company joined the Alliance. He says the Alliance's lobbying component will be complimented with a focus on research and product development, to ensure the best technology is ready to hit the market.
"The [telehealth] industry is in such an infancy," says Mr. Slovenski. "We all need to band together to make sure it gets off the ground in the right way so patients can get access to the affordable care they deserve."
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