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Chad Ellimoottil, MD, on how urologists should approach telehealth in changing policy environment
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"I say with a lot of confidence, just continue using telehealth as you are," says Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS.
The policy environment surrounding telehealth is a volatile one, according to Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS. While legislators have made several decisions to extend telehealth flexibilities that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have failed to pass any language to secure its permanent coverage.
Given this uncertainty, urologists and other health care professionals may feel unsure on how to incorporate telehealth in their practice. After all, Congress must decide on telehealth’s future yet again by the end of September, or else these provisions will expire.
In a recent interview with Urology Times®, Ellimoottil offered reassuring advice to urologists who are unsure of how to approach telehealth in this shaky environment: continue with the mindset of business as usual.
According to Ellimoottil, there is large support to continue coverage of telehealth flexibilities into the future, which make him optimistic about the potential for permanent coverage.
“People have seen the benefits of telehealth [and] practices have seen the benefits of telehealth over the last 4 years,” he said. “Folks do want to keep it the same. I think that it's very non-controversial from that standpoint.”
However, there are some areas of dissension, he explained.
“The areas where there is a little bit more debate are around how to create guardrails, or how to make sure that there's not a lot of fraud and abuse, so that's where the attention is. Fortunately, there [have] been big studies like from the Office of Inspector General that have found very little fraud and abuse among telehealth providers like us.”
Data such as these will help to inform telehealth's future.
