{"content":[{"text":"June 10, 2020","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.089036,"width":0.113837,"height":0.019048999999999996}},{"text":"Alexander Azar \n Secretary \n U.S. Department of Health and Human Services \n 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. \n Washington, DC 20201","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.12093,"width":0.38250600000000007,"height":0.08301400000000002}},{"text":"RE: Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery Executive Order","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.216858,"width":0.598895,"height":0.019089999999999996}},{"text":"Dear Secretary Azar:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.248758,"width":0.167715,"height":0.01904900000000001}},{"text":"On May 19, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Regulatory Relief to \n Support Economic Recovery” in which he directed federal agencies to remove regulatory \n barriers to economic recovery and identify actions that they had taken previously in response to \n COVID-19 which would promote economic recovery if made permanent. Each agency is to \n report its findings to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Assistant to the \n President for Domestic Policy, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. The \n undersigned organizations tender the recommendations in this letter in the hope that you \n include them in the report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services required by \n the Executive Order.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.280728,"width":0.756705,"height":0.14677600000000002}},{"text":"The coronavirus pandemic demands that health care policymakers, payers, and providers \n reconsider how care is delivered. We greatly appreciate the actions that HHS and the Centers \n for Medicare & Medicaid Services have taken to afford flexibilities to health care providers and \n patients, including expanding the eligibility of providers who can furnish and bill for telehealth \n and communication technology-based services under Medicare.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.440425,"width":0.746057,"height":0.08291299999999996}},{"text":"Consistent with Sections 4 and 7 of the Executive Order, the undersigned organizations \n strongly encourage HHS to work with Congress to amend the Social Security Act to \n provide CMS with the statutory authority to permanently extend the policy that allows \n telehealth services furnished by all outpatient occupational therapy, physical therapy, \n speech-language pathology, and audiology providers to be reimbursed under Medicare, \n as well as make permanent the flexibilities associated with the originating site \n geography, authorized originating site, and audio-visual technology to allow all Medicare \n beneficiaries to receive telehealth services from their home, whether that home is in the \n community or part of an institutional setting. In the meantime, CMS should maintain \n these policies, which impact a particularly vulnerable population, until an effective \n COVID-19 vaccine is available and widely deployed in order for Congress to fully \n consider making such changes permanent.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.536353,"width":0.759037,"height":0.19477200000000006}},{"text":"The coronavirus pandemic highlighted and resulted in a need for patients, health systems, \n payers, and providers to rapidly adopt or expand models and modes of care delivery that \n minimize disruptions in care and the risks associated with those disruptions. The expansion of \n telehealth payment and practice policies during this Public Health Emergency (PHE) have \n demonstrated that many needs can be effectively met via the use of technology and that \n patients can have improved access to skilled care by leveraging these resources. Providers who \n had to rapidly deploy telehealth services in less than ideal situations were still able to support \n patients and positively impact outcomes. In addition, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) \n decision to modify HIPAA enforcement processes has been extremely beneficial mostly due to \n the flexibilities that permitted the use of more affordable, familiar, and available audio-visual","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.743859,"width":0.764081,"height":0.16286199999999995}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}