Big Win for Telemedicine
In an extraordinary vote, the U.S. Senate reversed itself and voted to overcome a filibuster of H.R. 6331, a comprehensive Medicare package that includes important telemedicine provisions.
When the measure was called up after a 2 week intensive advocacy effort on the part of medical groups and senior citizens, the tally was 69 to 30, which is a sufficient margin to override the veto that President Bush has threatened. Two weeks ago, the measure fell one vote short of the 60 votes needed to stop the filibuster.
In a dramatic moment, Sen. Edward Kennedy, MA, made an unexpected trip to Washington to vote for the bill. Sen. Kennedy, who had been home in Massachusetts recovering from surgery to treat a brain tumor, was not expected to return to the Senate until September. When Sen. Kennedy walked onto the Senate floor as the roll was being called, the entire Senate gave him a resounding and sustained standing ovation that interrupted the clerk for quite some time.
H.R. 3661 contains provisions adding skilled nursing facilities, hospital-based dialysis centers and community mental health centers as originating sites for the Medicare telehealth program. Addition of these sites has been a major advocacy initiative for ATA.
It is unclear whether the President will veto the bill given that both the House and the Senate passed the measure with sufficient margins to override a veto. It is likely that if there is a veto that it will be overridden.
Many people contributed to this success. ATA is extremely grateful to our champions in Congress including Sen. Kent Conrad, ND; Sen. Max Baucus, MT; Sen. Charles Grassley, IA; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, MI; Sen. John Thune, SD; Rep. Mike Thompson, CA; Rep. Bart Stupak, MI; Rep. Kenny Hulshof, MO; and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, ND.
ATA also thanks those in the telemedicine community who worked so hard to get us this far. ATA is grateful to all the members who responded to the ATA Action Alerts. Many ATA members worked hard to get their senators and representatives to support this legislation, and ATA is grateful to those who made individual efforts. In addition, many ATA members signed letters at the annual meeting in Seattle, and many people also made Capitol Hill visits as part of the Telehealth Leadership Conference and on their own. All these efforts contributed to this success.
ATA is also grateful to other organizations who have worked to advance this legislation including the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare and their representative, Al Guida, who has worked so hard on the CMHC provision; the American Health Care Association; the National Association for the support of Long Term Care; the American Health Information Management Association; the Center for Aging Services Technologies; the National Center for Assisted Living.
ATA will continue to advocate for the expansion of reimbursement for telemedicine and will keep you informed of developments on this and other important issues.
K. Reeder Franklin
Senior Director of Public Policy
American Telemedicine Association
1100 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 540
Washington, D.C. 20036
Direct Dial: (202) 223-1294
Main Number: (202) 223-3333
Fax: (202) 223-2787
rfranklin@americantelemed.org
www.americantelemed.org
Joint Commission Releases New Patient Safety Goals
On June 17, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations released the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals and related requirements for accredited ambulatory care facilities and offices in which surgery is performed. The goals apply to more than 15,000 health care organization and programs, the commission said.
AAHAM/HFMA Announces Summer Session
Please join AAHAM/HFMA and explore the corridors, pitfalls, and traps facing providers with the new NPI implementation, Medicare Rules and Regulations, and questions from patients about pricing. The moons will align over Evergreen Medical Center in Kirkland, on July 18, for our joint AAHAM/HFMA conference. Attend if you dare to keep yourself updated on these important healthcare issues.
To register, please contact Sherri Guillings, president of the Evergreen Chapter of AAHAM at (206) 598-9145.
GCI Completes Purchase of Communications Subsidiaries of United Companies, Inc.
GCI announced the completion of its acquisition of the communication subsidiaries of United Companies, Inc., a holding company owned by Sea Lion Corporation and Togiak Natives Limited, the Alaska Native village corporations for Hooper Bay and Togiak. The acquisition was completed on June 3, 2008. Read the full GCI UUI press release.
GCI Launches New Satellite
At 1:43 a.m. on June 3, 2008, Galaxy-18 was successfully launched into orbit from an equatorial position south of Hawaii. Initial data from the satellite indicates that it launched nicely. The satellite ran tests for 13 days. Galaxy-18 replaced Galaxy-10R as our primary C-band satellite. Galaxy-18 should serve us well for the next 14 years, or more. Read the full GCI Galaxy 18 press release.
Washington
Major Upgrades and Improvements
We completed a series of major upgrades and improvements to our Washington medical network (formerly MedWAN). This has brought increased bandwidth, security and support to our Washington members and opened access to a host of new products and services, all supported by GCI's around-the-clock Network Operations Center and Help Desk.
Secure and Convenient Online Personal Health: Pipedream or Reality? AccessMyHealth.org is Working on the Answers
Have you ever wished you had better and more convenient access to your personal health records? AccessMyHealth.org, a partnership of Washingtonians – patients, doctors, consumers and others – is exploring ways to improve patients' access to their personal health information.
The AccessMyHealth.org partnership was convened by the Washington State Health Care Authority. Its goal is to give patients better and more convenient access to a copy of their health information, so they can be more knowledgeable partners in their own care. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate.
If you’d like to learn more, please sign up at www.AccessMyHealth.org. Participation at any level is welcome – from taking a ten-minute online survey, to eventually testing an online personalized health record. Every bit of input helps.
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- The GCI ConnectMD Team
