October 20, 2020 Senate Hearing on Broadband Wraps up Efforts and Looks to the Future In what was deemed as the largest virtually attended broadband hearing of the 2019–2020 legislative session, on Tuesday more than 30 stakeholders joined the state Senate Communications and Technology Committee Broadband Public Roundtable, to discuss federal and state perspectives on broadband access and the impact of COVID-19 on access to health care and other services.
October 16, 2020 CMS Expands List of Reimbursed Telehealth Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that providers will have 11 additional telehealth services that will be reimbursed by CMS during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
September 30, 2020 COVID-19 Treatments, PA Hospital Pandemic Response Subjects of State House Hearing The Pennsylvania House Health Committee convened today for a hearing about treatments for COVID-19. The hearing featured expert testimony from physicians from a variety of disciplines, including family medicine, infectious diseases, pediatrics, and rural health.
September 30, 2020 Senate Republican Policy Committee Convenes Hearing about Telemedicine Today, the Senate Republican Policy Committee held a hearing about the future of telemedicine. Stephanie Watkins, HAP’s vice president, state legislative advocacy, joined representatives from member organizations, including Allegheny Health Network and UPMC, for a panel discussion highlighting the importance of telemedicine, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 29, 2020 HAP-Supported Licensure Compact Bills Head to State Senate Today in Harrisburg, the House of Representatives took action to bring the commonwealth closer to meeting its health care workforce needs by passing legislation authorizing Pennsylvania to join other states in interstate licensure compacts for certain health care professionals. Participation in the various compacts allows Pennsylvania’s patient population the opportunity to leverage the nation’s entire health care workforce and ensures greater access to care for families across the commonwealth.
September 04, 2020 New HHS Action Plan Outlines Trump Administration’s Coordinated Rural Health Strategy This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new action plan focused on rural health care as part of its response to President Trump’s August 3 rural health Executive Order. This assessment, a product of the HHS Rural Task Force, is HHS’ first in-depth look at rural health care in more than 18 years.
September 03, 2020 Federal Agencies Join Forces to Focus on Telehealth and Broadband Access This week, the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the co-signing of a Memorandum of Understanding combining their efforts to expand broadband, which would increase access to telehealth in rural America.
September 01, 2020 Governor Wolf Authorizes Second Extension of COVID-19 Disaster Declaration Governor Wolf today announced a second extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Declaration. The initial declaration was signed March 6, 2020, the same day as the announcement of the first two presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania.
August 21, 2020 HHS Aims to Increase Health Care Access in Rural Communities Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the recipients of more than $35 million aimed at increasing access to high-quality health care in rural communities. Through the Health Resources and Services Administration, these awards went to more than 50 organizations across 33 states including Pennsylvania.
August 19, 2020 Telehealth Use Among Adults Increases New polls show the number of older adults using telehealth increased from 4 percent to 46 percent during 2020. The polls conducted during 2019 to 2020 included national samples of more than 2,000 adults age 50 to 80.