Preserving Access to Telehealth: Today’s Policy Agenda of the American Telemedicine Association

In March of 2020, the world suddenly started using telehealth. After decades of dragging their feet, providers implemented video visits and messaging applications overnight, and the public responded enthusiastically. It is hard to believe that these advances could disappear in the United States, particularly when COVID-19 variants still swarm over us. Yet most of the changes came through regulations that were deliberately temporary and were never stabilized in law.

Of course, caution is commendable when issuing far-reaching emergency legislation. But now that telehealth has demonstrated its value, it’s time to make access universal and permanent.

I talked recently with Kyle Zebley, Vice President of Public Policy for the organization most active in telehealth policy, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). He summarized how far the United States has come, which advances are threatened by the expiration of regulations, and the bills that the ATA supports to put telehealth on a firm footing. They have recently formed a group focused on Government Relations to create policy suggestions and help the ATA hold effective interactions with policy-makers.