Talks Continue Between CPCA and DHCS that Will Ensure Permanent Telehealth Flexibilities
Shutting down was never an option for California’s community health centers (CHCs). Instead, CHCs seized the moment. In March 2020, nearly overnight, the very institutions that had been limited by draconian guidance on how, and when, telehealth could be utilized, were proving that care via synchronous video and audio modalities could improve access, maintain complex care needs, expand behavioral health services, and provide hope. Since then, CPCA has been using every regulatory engagement and legislative opportunity to demand permanent change – a unique opportunity to right a policy wrong by guaranteeing that the one in three Medi-Cal beneficiaries who receive their care at CHCs have the same modalities choices as their peers.
This summer, CPCA, in collaboration with CaliforniaHealth+ Advocates and core partners at the California Association of Public Hospitals & Health Systems, California Medical Association, Essential Access Health, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, laid the groundwork for a post pandemic Medi-Cal telehealth policy. After co-sponsoring AB 32 (Aguiar-Curry), to force a critical conversation on the role of telehealth in the Medi-Cal delivery system, telehealth policy conversations pivoted to the FY 21-22 state budget. AB 133, the FY 21-22 omnibus health trailer bill, included a negotiated agreement with two core components (1) a commitment to maintain all current telehealth flexibilities and payments through the end of 2022 and (2) the creation of a new stakeholder table to determine new policies to support telehealth flexibilities and payment parity in 2023 and beyond.
As part of this agreement, this September, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) launched the Telehealth Advisory Workgroup (TAW). Health center telehealth interests are represented at the stakeholder table by Beth Malinowski, CPCA’s Director of Government Affairs and Anne Frunk, Director of EDI Compliance & Internal Audits at Shasta Community Health Center. DHCS just wrapped up the initial three convenings and is committed to continuing conversations into 2022. TAW meeting discussions focused on a number of areas of interest to health centers including billing, consumer choice and documentation, network adequacy, utilization controls, data and evaluation.
Throughout the dialog, there was a chorus of stakeholder voices that spoke to the critical opportunity telehealth brings to creating greater access and move California towards a more equitable health care delivery system not just for primary care, but for behavioral and specialty access too. The initial meetings were a promising next step in the effort that will culminate in additional trailer bill language (TBL) that will be moved by the administration through the FY 22-23 budget process which will kick off just after the new year.