WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema urged Senate leaders to make temporary telehealth provisions from the CONNECT for Health Act permanent to ensure access to services during and beyond the pandemic. The CONNECT for Health Act, included in the CARES Act, increases availability of telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries and allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to approve telehealth programs more quickly.
Sinema, a cosponsor of the CONNECT for Health Act, has supported provisions to ease telehealth restrictions in the CARES Act and successfully urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to increase availability of telehealth in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Making new telehealth services permanent improves quality of care and reduces the risk of hospitalizations for Arizona seniors during this global pandemic,” said Sinema.
Sinema’s bipartisan letter calls on Senate leaders to make the CONNECT for Health Act provisions in the CARES Act law permanent as part of a future coronavirus relief package. Increased telehealth technologies and services have shown to improve quality of care and reduce the risk of hospitalizations. Early evidence indicates that in the past two months, telehealth usage among Medicare beneficiaries has increased by 11,718 percent. The bipartisan letter also calls on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to collect more data to help Congress determine the efficacy of telehealth within Medicare.
Click HERE for Sinema’s letter.
Sinema website, www.sinema.senate.gov/corona, includes specific resources in English and Spanish for Arizonans looking for the latest information on coronavirus.
