According to FierceHealth IT, the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) met this week in Washington, DC and made significant recommendations regarding telehealth reimbursement:

Among them:

• Reimbursement for services provided through telehealth should be made based upon medical effectiveness and utilization and not based upon or limited to particular delivery platforms or locations.
• The Medicare law should be expanded to allow anything currently covered by Medicare to be reimbursed when provided through telehealth by appropriately licensed or credentialed providers otherwise eligible for Medicare reimbursement.
• A telemedicine payment methodology should be provided so that a professional fee is paid to all providers necessary to that particular encounter, including a technical fee to the facilities to cover costs associated with the technology at rates to be determined by the HHS Secretary.
• A separate Medicare billing code for telehealth consultations should be implemented to assist in monitoring the use of telehealth.
• A federal policy should be adopted to allow telemedicine providers to receive deemed status and to allow for healthcare facilities receiving telehealth services to perform credentialing by proxy. If a provider is already credentialed at a Medicare participating facility, that credential would be sufficient for providing telemedicine services at another facility.

With national organizations such as NRHA along with the American Telemedicine Association and others, eventually the forces pushing for national policy change will occur. It appears that the Obama administration and many legislators are understanding the need and are supportive. Hopefully, this important component of  healthcare delivery will not become a victim of partisan disequilibrium.