Medical Industry Makes Push to Enshrine Telehealth Provisions

Medical providers are pushing Congress to help them make permanent telehealth provisions they came to rely on during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bills backed by dozens of lawmakers aim to permanently enshrine pandemic-era flexibilities around digital health-care services.

Some of the flexibilities offered by the bills include removing in-person examination requirements for online health-care services, allowing employers to offer standalone telehealth benefits to their employees, and removing the requirement that patients pay a deductible for health care administered via telehealth.

Telehealth use soared during the pandemic, bringing in-demand services like mental health treatment to remote areas and disadvantaged ...