Northeast Telehealth Resource Center 7th annual Northeast Regional Telehealth Conference
Thomas (T.J.) Ferrante, a Partner in Foley & Lardner’s national Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Team will be a speaker at the Northeast Telehealth Resource Center (NETRC) 7th annual Northeast Regional Telehealth Conference on Friday, September 24, 2021 at 10:00am ET. His panel presentation is titled: “Telehealth 2021 Update: How COVID-19 Has Changed Telemedicine.”
Mr. Ferrante will be joined by Dr. Joe Kvedar, a board-certified dermatologist, Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Chair of the Board of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).
While the COVID Public Health Emergency did not create the telehealth industry, it certainly accelerated its growth. A major catalyst for the growth in 2020 was a wide variety of expansions on coverage/payment for telehealth services, coupled with waivers on state licensure requirements. Together, the reduction of administrative barriers and the confidence of insurance reimbursement allowed telehealth companies to rapidly scale and grow, as well as experiment with new and different delivery models. While some of these waivers are temporary and will expire when the Public Health Emergency ends, not all waivers will end, and the lessons learned over the past eighteen months might help propel policy arguments, supported by real-world clinical outcomes data, to make permanent many of these waivers. This session will focus on the mainstreaming of telehealth that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and where it will be in the months, and years, to come.
At this session, participants will discuss:
- Enforcement flexibility during this public health emergency
- Expansion of reimbursement
- Implications for the future of virtual health
The NETRC has a mission to increase access to quality health care services for rural and medically underserved populations through Telehealth. It provides individualized technical assistance, education, and other resources in collaboration with the Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers, MCD Public Health, and the University of Vermont. NETRC’s service area includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. NETRC is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, which is part of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Nationally, there are 14 Telehealth Resource Centers, including 12 Regional Centers and 2 National Centers which focus on areas of technology assessment and telehealth policy.
To learn more and register for this event, visit the NETRC Conference Website.
