Telehealth Regulatory and Compliance Issues in a Post-COVID-19 World

Gain an understanding on new applications of telehealth to health care services and continuing telehealth services in a post-COVID-19 world.

Digital health technology represents one of the fastest growing areas in health care delivery. It has been broadly adopted by federal and state government payers and represents a growing technology in other countries. The COVID-19 pandemic required a change in how health care services could be delivered in the interest of limiting exposure and virus spread as well as enabling increased access by patients to necessary physical and mental health services and general support. To address this, the United States government issued an unprecedented array of temporary regulation waivers and new rules to bolster its health care system providing maximum flexibility for the health care facilities and providers to respond to the pandemic. Other countries that have a national health system, expanded their programs to enhance the use of telehealth, following guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that we are part of "One World" and that "local is now global" in the use of digital health technology. The laws, rules and regulations governing the use of telehealth during the public health emergency will give way to a more normalized approach to balancing the government's interest in protecting the public's health with the interest in protecting individual privacy and data security. All of this exists in a system that defines what is covered by the payers and how much will be paid to those providing the services and by which methods these services are being provided. This topic will be helpful to those who are attempting to sort out the next phase of telehealth in a post-COVID-19 world. The material will discuss the current telehealth technology available and speculate on its future use both domestically and abroad; and the barriers to entry into this expanding industry, the complex regulatory environment in which it operates and approaches to implementation. The following areas will also be addressed: foreign corrupt practices act; medical licensure, credentialing and privileging; privacy and security; fraud and abuse laws and professional liability.