RUSH Act Seeks to Improve Opportunities for Telehealth Services

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Jodi Boyne

New bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow qualified physician group practices to furnish telehealth services in skilled nursing facilities under the Medicare program. 

The Reducing Unnecessary Senior Hospitalization Act (RUSH) Act of 2018 seeks to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations by allowing for the use of technology in skilled nursing facilities to treat patients in place rather than transferring them to the hospital. 

The legislation allows the Medicare program to selectively enter into value-based arrangements with qualified physician group practices furnishing a combination of telehealth and on-site first responders. With a telehealth connection to an emergency physician, an on-site first responder equipped with mobile diagnostics would coordinate treatment for patients with acute care needs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would also have the authority to determine the reimbursement level for these services. The anticipated savings will be shared between the physician group practice, Medicare and skilled nursing facilities. 

We applaud the introduction of this much-needed legislation that will help reduce unnecessary hospitalizations by utilizing telehealth services and technology. In addition to providing participating skilled nursing facilities with a 12.5 percent share of the cost savings, the bill would:

• Encourage the use of two-way video conferencing for skilled nursing facilities in urban areas;
• Provide skilled nursing facilities with an increased facility fee, that adequately covers the cost of having the technology and administering telehealth services;
• Allow a “patient’s home” to be included as an eligible originating site; and
• Expand eligibility of reimbursement to other long-term and post-acute care professionals that can administer chronic care management in the community using store-and-forward telehealth and remote patient monitoring.