Exploring Burden Reduction and Telehealth Preservation

Both chambers of Congress are in session this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Senate is out today, and the House is out on Friday.

Both chambers will also hold healthcare-related hearings on Wednesday morning focused on burden reduction. The Senate Committee on the Budget will discuss alleviating administrative burdens, and the House Committee on Small Business will examine the impacts of regulatory burdens on small businesses.

Both Congress and the White House may soon address telehealth. Several pandemic-era flexibilities are set to expire on December 31, 2024, including expanded access to telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) allowance of prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine.

The House Committee on Ways and Means may hold a markup of telehealth and other Medicare legislation as early as this week, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is expected to do so the following week.

On the regulatory front, the Administration is coming up against the Congressional Review Act (CRA) deadline, which would allow rules enacted after the deadline to be easily challenged by the next Congress, depending on the election outcome. This could drive regulatory action on DEA in the near future. However, as most members of Congress support expanding telehealth services, the CRA may not be a concern, and the Administration may have more time to act.

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