Dear Rep. Eshoo and Rep. Guthrie:
As Congress considers telehealth issues and reforms, HR Policy Association and the American Health Policy Institute urge you to include provisions to expand telehealth services in the next bill.
The HR Policy Association is the leading organization representing chief human resource officers of over 390 of the largest employers in the United States. Collectively, their companies provide health care coverage to over 20 million employees and dependents in the United States. Large employers work hard to provide innovative, high value health care benefits at the lowest possible cost. Expanding telehealth services is particularly important for increasing access to behavioral health services during and after the pandemic.
Below are some telehealth and tele-behavioral health policy priorities we urge Congress to address.
- Make permanent the allowance of first-dollar coverage of telehealth in high deductible health plans;
- Allow employers to offer standalone "excepted benefit" telehealth benefits;
- Adopt technology-neutral requirements, permitting use of different types of technology platforms for telehealth services;
- Establish a uniform set of rules for multi-state telehealth benefit plans to eliminate state restrictions that block patients from telehealth benefits; and
- Eliminate cross-state border restrictions on telehealth and tele-behavioral health services on a permanent basis. Licensing requirements should be based on the location of the provider not the patient.
HR Policy Association and the American Health Policy Institute are working on public policy reforms to support employer telehealth benefits. We welcome any opportunity to provide input and speak in further detail regarding our recommendations.
