Rural and Frontier Telehealth Expansion Act

Bill: 117-s-2197
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Rosen, Jacky [D-NV]
Introduced: 2021-06-23
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Health care coverage and access

Health technology, devices, supplies

Intergovernmental relations

Internet and video services

Internet, web applications, social media

Medicaid

Rural conditions and development

State and local finance

State and local government operations
Latest action: action_date: 2021-06-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-06-23
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Rural and Frontier Telehealth Expansion Act</b></p> <p>This bill increases the applicable Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (i.e., federal matching rate) under Medicaid for telehealth services in rural states or states that have limited broadband infrastructure and that provide consistent and widespread coverage for such services.</p>

tv_txt: II 117th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2197 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 23, 2021 Ms. Rosen (for herself, Mr. Sullivan , Mr. Tester , Mrs. Capito , Mr. Luján , and Ms. Murkowski ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to increase the Federal medical assistance percentage for States that provide Medicaid coverage for telehealth services.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Rural and Frontier Telehealth Expansion Act . 2. Increased FMAP for States providing Medicaid coverage for telehealth services Section 1905(b) of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 1396d(b) ) is amended, in the first sentence— (1) by striking and (5) and inserting (5) ; and (2) by inserting , and (6) in the case of a frontier State (as defined in section 1886(d)(3)(E)(iii)(II)) or a State where less than 90 percent of the total population has access to fixed terrestrial broadband service with at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed (according to the most recently available annual Broadband Deployment Report of the Federal Communications Commission) that, as determined by the Secretary, provides medical assistance for telehealth services (including audio-only telehealth services) for a majority of the services for which medical assistance is available under the State plan (or a waiver of such plan) and for which telehealth is appropriate and provides such services at a level that is not less than the level at which the State provided such services on January 1, 2021, the Federal medical assistance percentage, as determined under this subsection and subsection (y), shall be increased by 5 percentage points with respect to medical assistance for telehealth services before the period.