By: Payton Blake & Sarin Chaimattayompol
Friday Afternoon, the Senate Finance failed to pass the Reevaluation Telehealth Act, a bill aiming to reassess the structure and funding of telehealth services across the country. Telehealth refers to the use of digital communication technologies—such as video calls, mobile apps, and online monitoring—to provide healthcare services remotely. However, controversy has arisen within the Senate over telehealth, as the integrity of its spending has been called into question.
In order to combat these concerns over telehealth’s ventures, cost, and implications, the bill proposed the Telehealth Evaluation Agency (TEA), requiring an estimated 50 million-dollar budget annually.
This budget promptly sparked controversy. A majority of the Senate—in a vote of 13-14—argued that the bill was hypocritical, as it pulled funding away from telehealth services and underserved communities.
In an interview with an author of the bill, Republican State Sen. John Barrasso, he argued that the senators “did not have a good understanding of” the bill. The bill was not trying to cut telehealth’s budget, but in fact, “cut over-spending…by placing scrutiny on” incorrect usage of the budget.
When asked about the importance of the bill, Barrasso claimed that protection of the budget would “protect those in rural communities,” especially those that do “not have access to transportation.” As the Senator of Wyoming—the least populated state at 587,618 residents—Barrasso says he understands the struggles of accessing healthcare within “rural and underserved communities more than any.”
In an interview with Senator Maggie Hassan, the New Hampshire Democrat raised concerns about how the bill lacked a comprehensive plan that was accessible to rural and underserved communities. She explains how rural communities, particularly the rural elderly population, have “less access to education” about insurance processes. “Without a clear plan,” she empathizes, “they could be really taken advantage of.” She expressed lingering concerns about “regulations, VPN, and national guidelines.”
When she asked about cybersecurity during the Senate session, her question was swiftly brushed aside because the bill authors claimed cybersecurity was “implied.” In her view, the bill was “vague enough to take accountability out of the hands of the healthcare provider and slip under the radar.”
Overall, she explained, the bill “was like reading a classic book. If you asked me to explain the plot points I wouldn’t know how.” She did, however, acknowledge that having someone in healthcare determine the insurance fee was a “good step in the right direction.”
Reflecting on the big picture, Senator Hassan ended the interview with a broad outlook on the status of telehealth’s expansion under medicare: “You can’t expand a system that doesn’t have a firm foundation.”