Cures 2.0 Extends Critically-Needed Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities Beyond the Public Health Emergency

Cures 2.0 advances groundbreaking, cures, treatments and innovations to those who need them most. It would also extend critically-needed Medicare telehealth services under Medicare, which includes hospice face-to-face recertification, beyond the public health emergency. Additionally, it calls on HHS to develop a nationwide testing and vaccine distribution strategy.

Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Fred Upton (R-MI) have introduced their highly anticipated, bipartisan legislation, “21^st Century Cures 2.0” in the House which aims to revolutionize how the U.S. provides care to patients and speed up delivery of groundbreaking treatments and potentially lifesaving cures treatments and innovations for those who need the most. The legislation is a follow-up bill to the 21^st Century Cures Act passed in 2016.

In addition to advancing medical research and treatments the bill would also expand access to telehealth services under the Medicare and Medicaid Program, to allow critically-needed telehealth services to be continued beyond the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency.

Cures 2.0 also hopes to address the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for HHS to conduct a nationwide study on the implications of long COVID and develop a testing and vaccine distribution strategy that could be used for future pandemics.

Extending Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities

Cures 2.0 would permanently remove Medicare’s geographic and originating site restrictions which require a patient to live in a rural area and be physically in a doctor’s office or medical facility to use telehealth services. Additionally, it would permanently allow the home of an individual to be eligible for reimbursement.

It would also allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to permanently expand the types of health care practitioners that can offer telehealth services and the types of services that can be reimbursed under Medicare. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) would be required to produce a report with recommendations to enhance Medicare coverage and reimbursement for innovative health technologies.

Hospice Face-to-Face Recertification

Another key feature of the bill is to permanently allow hospice face-to-face recertification to be done through Medicare’s telehealth services. It is currently allowable as part of the COVID-19 public health emergency, and authorized through the CARES Act signed into law on March 27, 2020. Similar provisions are included in the CONNECT Act and in the Telehealth Modernization Act.

Further Expand COVID Implications

The legislation would also take steps to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to:

• Conduct a nationwide study on the implications of long COVID;

  Develop a nationwide testing and vaccine distribution strategy to be used in future pandemics.

• Require more diversity in clinical trials to ensure any new drugs and treatments approved for use in the U.S. are both safe and effective for a greater – and more representative – portion of the population.
• Provide patients more information about the illness they face and the treatment options available to them to make them a more integral part of the decision-making process.

Additionally, the legislation would:

• Create an entirely new agency aimed at ending some of the world’s most difficult diseases, that would be housed within the National Institutes of Health.
• Provide training and educational programs for at-home caregivers – including family members with no prior health care experience to help them better care for loved ones when they are home.
• Require a report from HHS that addresses the viability of establishing alternative coverage pathways for innovative technologies.

You can access the bill text here.