This week the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) distributed a letter of support formally endorsing Senate Bill 2484, the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act.
The CONNECT for Health Act is a forward-thinking , bi-partisan bill that aims to help healthcare providers transition to address the goals of both the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) by using telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM). The bill also will allow telehealth and RPM to be used by qualifying participants in alternative payment models, and it will permit the use of RPM for certain patients with chronic conditions.
The AASM commends the sponsors and co-sponsors of this bill for their support and for their commitment to expand the reach of quality physician care through telemedicine: Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Ben Cardin (D-MD), John Thune (R-SD), and Mark Warner (D-VA).
Are you represented by one of these lawmakers? Would you like your Senators to co-sponsor this bill? Access the AASM’s 2016 Advocacy Toolkit or contact the AASM Government Relations and Health Policy department at policy@aasm.org to learn how to contact your lawmakers and become an advocate for healthy, restorative sleep.
Not only is the CONNECT for Health Act forward-thinking, it is also in alignment with AASM SleepTM, the new state-of-the-art telemedicine platform designed specifically for sleep medicine. A core component of the system is a secure, web-based video platform that facilitates live, interactive consultations and follow-up visits between patients and sleep medicine providers.
The expansion of telemedicine will dramatically increase patient access to board-certified sleep medicine physicians and accredited sleep centers.
