Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021

NURS 5051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology

Walden University

Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021

• Telemedicine or telehealth evolved as a pertinent healthcare component at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (Lee & Leyland-Jones, 2020).
• Policy challenges associated with the limited use of telehealth, especially privacy and confidentiality issues, led to the formulation of the Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021 on the floor of the House.
• The bill was sponsored by the Representative of Texas, District 25, Roger Williams, and introduced on January 15, 2021, to the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees before it was referred to the subcommittee of health on February 2, 2021.
• Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021 sought to permanently enable federally qualified rural health clinics and centers to use routine technology to serve remote patients.
• The policy also sought to consent Medicare and Medicaid recipients to obtain medical services virtually at any site irrespective of location or type, and empower the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to renounce other restrictive requisites deemed necessary.
• Impact of Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021 on:
  • System Implementation:
    • The bill expands the use of telehealth services to provide virtual clinical services to distant patients by federally qualified medical professionals (R.341 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021/ Library of Congress, 2021).
  • Clinical Care:
    • Broadens access to patient care
    • Improves affordability of care by decreasing transportation costs associated with in-person hospital visits (Harmon, 2021).
    • Decreases risk of hospital-acquired infections, including SARS-CoV-19, allied to physical hospital visits (Thomson, 2021)
  • Workflow:
    • Telehealth appointments on specific days
    • Online patient scheduling
    • Proper establishment of virtual triage guidelines
    • Legal compliance
  • Organizational Changes to Support Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021
    • Training of staff on the implementation of the policy
    • Technological upgrade to support telehealth appointments
    • Establishment of a legal compliance team

References

H.R.341 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act of 2021/ Library of Congress, (2021) (testimony of Congressional Research Service). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/341

Harmon, G. (2021, July 14). Expansion of telehealth services must be sustained.  American Medical Association. https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/expansion-telehealth-services-must-be-sustained

Lee, R., & Leyland-Jones, B. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on telehealth. American Health & Drug Benefits, 13(3), 125–126. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32699574%0Ahttp://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=PMC7370821

Thomson, K. (2021, May 10). Congress: Act now to ensure telehealth access for Medicare beneficiaries.  Health Affairs. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20210505.751442/full/

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources on healthcare policy and regulatory/legislative topics related to health and nursing informatics.
• Consider the role of the nurse informaticist in relation to a healthcare organization’s compliance with various policies and regulations, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
• Research and select one health or nursing informatics policy (within the past 5 years) or regulation for further study.

The Assignment: (1 page not including the title and reference page)

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

• Briefly and generally explain the policy or regulation you selected.
• Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on system implementation.
• Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow.
• Highlight organizational policies and procedures that are/will be in place at your healthcare organization to address the policy or regulation you selected. Be specific.
• Use APA format and include a title page, in-text citations, and reference page.
• Use the Safe Assign Drafts to check your match percentage before submitting your work.