Title: eTREAT Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Expanding Telehealth Response to Ensure Addiction Treatment Act or the eTREAT Act
This bill expands the availability of substance use disorder telehealth services under Medicare. Under current law, telehealth services are generally covered under Medicare only if such services are received by beneficiaries at specified types of sites that are located in rural areas. The bill exempts substance use disorder telehealth services from these requirements.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2901 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2901

 To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand the use of 
telehealth services for the treatment of opioid use disorder and other 
                        substance use disorders.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 22, 2018

    Mr. Thune (for himself, Mr. Warner, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. 
Whitehouse, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Wicker, and Mrs. Hyde-Smith) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand the use of 
telehealth services for the treatment of opioid use disorder and other 
                        substance use disorders.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Expanding Telehealth Response to 
Ensure Addiction Treatment Act'' or the ``eTREAT Act''.

SEC. 2. EXPANDING THE USE OF TELEHEALTH SERVICES FOR THE TREATMENT OF 
              OPIOID USE DISORDER AND OTHER SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS.

    Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4)(C)(i), by striking ``paragraph (6)'' 
        and inserting ``paragraphs (6) and (7)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(7) Treatment of substance use disorder services 
        furnished through telehealth.--
                    ``(A) Non-application of originating site 
                requirements.--The requirements described in paragraph 
                (4)(C) shall not apply with respect to telehealth 
                services furnished on or after January 1, 2019, for 
                purposes of treatment of substance use disorder, as 
                determined by the Secretary.
                    ``(B) No originating site facility fee for new 
                sites.--No facility fee shall be paid under paragraph 
                (2)(B) to an originating site with respect to a 
                telehealth service described in subparagraph (A) if the 
                originating site does not otherwise meet the 
                requirements for an originating site under paragraph 
                (4)(C).
                    ``(C) Report.--Not later than 5 years after the 
                date of the enactment of this paragraph, the Secretary 
                shall submit to Congress a report on the impact of this 
                paragraph with respect to telehealth services on--
                            ``(i) the utilization of health care items 
                        and services related to substance use 
                        disorders, including emergency department 
                        visits; and
                            ``(ii) health outcomes related to substance 
                        use disorders, such as opioid overdose 
                        deaths.''.
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