Emergency COVID Telehealth Response Act

Emergency COVID Telehealth Response Act

This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow, when exercising its waiver authority, the following providers to furnish telehealth services under Medicare during the public health emergency relating to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019): physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, speech-language pathologists, clinical social workers, and audiologists. (Currently, the CMS is authorized to waive requirements for Medicare telehealth services during the public health emergency, and it has done so to allow all providers that are otherwise eligible to furnish in-person services under Medicare to also furnish telehealth services.)

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6654 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6654

To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to ensure the extension of 
 the telehealth waiver authority of the Secretary of Health and Human 
   Services to physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech 
          language-pathologists, and certain other providers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 1, 2020

   Mrs. Axne (for herself, Mr. Balderson, and Mr. Hill of Arkansas) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
   Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to ensure the extension of 
 the telehealth waiver authority of the Secretary of Health and Human 
   Services to physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech 
          language-pathologists, and certain other providers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency COVID Telehealth Response 
Act''.

SEC. 2. ENSURING EXTENSION OF SECRETARIAL TELEHEALTH WAIVER AUTHORITY 
              TO PHYSICAL THERAPISTS, OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS, SPEECH 
              LANGUAGE-PATHOLOGISTS, AND CERTAIN OTHER PROVIDERS.

    Subsection (b) of section 1135 of the Social Security Act is 
amended by adding at the end the following new sentence:
``In exercising authority under paragraph (8) during the period 
beginning on March 1, 2020, and ending on the last day of the emergency 
period described in subsection (g)(1)(B), the Secretary shall provide 
that a practitioner described in section 1834(m) shall be treated as 
including a physical therapist, physical therapist assistant working 
under the supervision of a physical therapist, occupational therapist, 
occupational therapy assistant working under the supervision of an 
occupational therapist, speech language-pathologist, clinical social 
worker (as defined in section 1861(hh)(1)), and audiologist.''.
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