A bill to increase the ability of nursing facilities to access to telehealth services and obtain technologies to allow virtual visits during the public health emergency relating to an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and for other purposes.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · March 18, 2020
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Advancing Connectivity during the Coronavirus to Ensure Support for Seniors Act or the ACCESS Act
This bill (1) provides appropriations for the Telehealth Resource Center Program of the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth within the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to develop telehealth capacity for certain nursing facilities, and (2) directs other activities to increase access to telehealth services in such facilities during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency.
HRSA shall award grants, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to skilled nursing facilities and other nursing facilities to support virtual visits to residents during the emergency. The FCC shall waive requirements that apply to certain funding for telecommunication and broadband services for health care providers if those requirements prevent facilities that receive grants from carrying them out.
The Department of Health and Human Services must also provide recommendations related to immediately increasing access, during the emergency, to telehealth services for which Medicare and Medicaid payments are available in skilled and other nursing facilities.
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