There’s a saying, “never let a crisis go to waste.”  The pandemic was horrific in many ways.  One positive change that came about was the lifting of restrictions around the use of telemedicine.  Clinicians could care for patients across state lines, could prescribe opioids without in person visits, could bill at higher rates for telemedicine than previous to the pandemic.  Many patients benefited, not only those isolating due to covid, but also patients in rural areas, patients who are homebound, and many others.  So now that the emergency response has ended, what’s to be done? 

In this podcast, Joe Rotella, Chief Medical Officer of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Brook Calton, Palliative Care doc at Massachusetts General Hospital and Medical Director at Devoted Health, and Carly Zapata, Palliative Care doc at UCSF and fellowship director, talk about the importance of maintaining access to telehealth for the good of patients with serious illness.  This DEA is taking 6-months to consider how to move forward vis a vis restrictions and requirements for telehealth in a post-pandemic world.  Now is the time to act, dear listeners!  You can:

• Write an Op-Ed to your local paper as Carly Zapata and colleagues did.  Start with a story as Carly did in her Op Ed.  Stories trump data.

• Write to your congressperson. See the AAHPM Legislative Action Center https://www.votervoice.net/AAHPMORG/home

• Write to the DEA, with guidance from AAHPM’s comments to the DEA March 2023.

• Advocate for the CONNECT for Health Act, which would permanently expand access to telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries: https://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/connect_for_health_act_2023_summary1.pdf

Much more on this podcast, including puzzling out who the characters in Space Oddity by David Bowie might represent in an extended analogy to telehealth.  Enjoy!

-@AlexSmithMD