WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and a bipartisan group of 50 senators reintroduced the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021, legislation that will expand coverage of telehealth services through Medicare, make permanent COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities, improve health outcomes, and make it easier for patients to safely connect with their doctors.

Three provisions from the CONNECT for Health Act were included in COVID-19 relief legislation to expand access to telehealth during the pandemic. As a result, telehealth has seen a sharp rise in use since the start of the pandemic as patients seek to avoid traveling to hospitals and other health care settings and instead receive care at home. Data shows that the number of Medicare beneficiaries using telehealth services increased by about 13,000 percent in just a month and a half during the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the broad utilization of telehealth services, highlighting the invaluable role it can play in making patient-centered health care more accessible,” said Senator Tillis. "I am proud to support the reintroduction of this commonsense legislation to modernize our health care system and improve outcomes for all North Carolina patients.”

The CONNECT for Health Act was first introduced in 2016 and is considered the most comprehensive legislation on telehealth in Congress. Since 2016, several provisions of the bill were enacted into law or adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, including provisions to remove restrictions on telehealth services for mental health, stroke care, and home dialysis. 

The updated version of the CONNECT for Health Act builds on that progress and includes new and revised provisions that will help more people access telehealth services. Specifically, the legislation will:

• Permanently remove all geographic restrictions on telehealth services and expand originating sites to include the home and other sites;
• Allow health centers and rural health clinics to provide telehealth services, a provision currently in place due to the pandemic but on a temporary basis;
• Provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the permanent authority to waive telehealth restrictions, a provision currently in place due to the pandemic but on a temporary basis;
• Allow for the waiver of telehealth restrictions during public health emergencies; and
• Require a study to learn more about how telehealth has been used during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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