The COVID-19 pandemic has changed health services forever – for both the bad and the good.
Over the past two years, there has been a dramatic increase in telehealth services – where patients see their doctors virtually – thanks to the bipartisan CARES Act in March of 2020. That legislation let doctors and patients on Medicare decide how they were going to meet, instead of imposing restrictive government regulations.
The expansion of telehealth may have been born out of necessity during the pandemic, but it’s proven to be incredibly effective, allowing more senior citizens on Medicare to access services wherever they lived so that they no longer have to worry about traveling to hospitals.
If getting rid of government restrictions on telehealth worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t see any reason to force senior citizens to travel miles to receive care again.
That’s why the House of Representatives passed the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act of 2021, which will extend critical telehealth policies implemented during the pandemic to make it easier for individuals to access remote care and other emerging health care technologies.
