WARNING THIS IS A WONKY THREAD: Tucked into the bill signed are the most significant changes ever made to Medicare law to use Telehealth. It will increase access and quality of care, and reduce costs using tech that’s already available. A few very cool examples here:
Right now lots of people have to drive to a hospital or clinic just to have a monitoring device put on some part of their body for a few minutes. This can and should be done in the home. This is huge for rural areas, the medically fragile, bad weather, and saves time and money.
Right now if you can’t get a specialist where you live, you have to drive or fly to where they are. With Telehealth everyone can eventually access the best clinicians whether they live in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, or NYC.
Right now lots of folks don’t have access to psychiatry, asthma docs, dermatology, etc... With Telehealth this can be done via secure connection on a phone, tablet, or computer.
Imagine the terrifying moment when you think your parent or spouse may be having a stroke. Thanks to this law, more local hospitals may be equipped with stroke experts via telehealth who can move fast to diagnose the stroke and determine treatment.
This bipartisan bill is the product of dozens of Senators House members, including @johnthune @RogerWicker @RonWyden @OrrinHatch @MarkWarner @BenCardinforMD . It will do a lot of good. Thanks to everyone who made this happen.
