For leaders making digital integral to how care is accessed, delivered, and scaled.
Dear ATA Community,
Last week brought big news on the federal policy front: the final budget package signed by President Trump on July 4 includes a major win for telehealth—making permanent the allowance for pre-deductible coverage of telehealth services under High-Deductible Health Plans paired with Health Savings Accounts (HDHP-HSAs). This is the first temporary telehealth provision enacted during the pandemic to become permanent, ensuring millions of Americans can continue accessing virtual care without first meeting high deductibles—supporting earlier interventions, cost savings, and greater flexibility in care. We believe this is a positive harbinger for the future.
But our work is far from over. There are a number of other critical telehealth flexibilities that urgently need action from Congress to clear the way for full access to virtual care services for our Medicare populations and millions of individuals with chronic conditions, mental health, and substance abuse disorders. And, recognizing that many of the budget cuts in the “big beautiful bill” create serious concerns for our healthcare system, we continue to explore opportunities to apply telehealth and digital health tools to help address these challenges.
At ATA Action, we continue to work tirelessly to advance policies that expand access to care through virtual means—because we believe no one should be left behind due to geography, income, or circumstance. We’ll continue to keep you informed and provide the most up-to-date information on policy developments that impact our shared work to improve care delivery through telehealth.
Alexis Apple Director, Federal Affairs, ATA; Sr. Manager, Federal Government Relations, ATA Action
ATA Members Recognized Among Top Chief Digital Officers in Healthcare
Becker’s Hospital Review has named 50 Hospital and Health System Chief Digital Officers to Know in 2025, recognizing leaders who are pushing the boundaries of innovation and digital transformation in healthcare. Many ATA members are represented on the list, including executives from Hospital for Special Surgery, Ochsner Health, Wellstar Health System, Cleveland Clinic, Duke University Health System, Mayo Clinic, Corewell Health, OSF HealthCare, Orlando Health, Ascension, Mass General Brigham, Northwell Health, Novant Health, Rochester Regional Health, Yale New Haven Health, LifeBridge Health, and Sutter Health. Read More »
AvaSure
7-Steps to Deploying Virtual Care and Virtual Nursing Platforms
AvaSure’s blog outlines a 7-step approach to successfully deploying virtual care and nursing platforms. It recommends starting with a clear pain point, building a strong business case, selecting the right vendor, launching a focused pilot, sharing results, tracking impact with data and stories, and scaling thoughtfully. This method helps ensure effective adoption, staff engagement, and long-term success. Read More »
Hospital at Home ‘Isn’t Dying’ Despite Vendor Exits
Despite recent vendor exits, the Hospital-at-Home model is far from fading. Health systems with strong internal infrastructure and integrated care teams are continuing to scale their programs. As the market shifts, hospitals are focusing on sustainable reimbursement strategies and long-term value, proving the model is evolving—not disappearing. Read More »
Leading-Edge Care: Where High Tech Meets High Touch
The Journal of Healthcare Management, published by the American College of Healthcare Executives, recently featured an article by Advocate Health’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Scott Rissmiller, exploring how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are enhancing clinical care.Read More »
Caregility
Caregility Partners with Arkansas Children's Hospital on NICU Digital Health Innovation
Caregility has partnered with Arkansas Children’s Hospital to launch a purpose-built tele-NICU cart designed to enhance remote care for critically ill newborns. The device supports virtual consults, tele-resuscitation, and clinical training—bringing advanced digital health tools directly to the NICU. Read More »
The Big Beautiful Bill Will Cut Medicaid, Rural States’ Healthcare Safety Net
A Tennessean op-ed warns that the proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill” would devastate rural healthcare by slashing Medicaid and Medicare funding. Despite offering a rural hospital fund, the bill’s deep cuts could force millions off coverage and threaten the survival of hospitals that serve as lifelines in small communities. Read More »
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Achieving Excellence in Virtual Care: Standardizing High-Quality Care with Real-World Insights
When: July 30, 2025 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET Virtual care promises to expand access and improve outcomes—yet too often, the reality falls short. In this session, National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and Firefly Health will share practical lessons from the field on how to navigate common pitfalls in virtual care delivery. We’ll explore quality assurance frameworks, adoption barriers, and measurable outcomes.
Attendees will learn how to scale virtual care while maintaining high clinical quality and equity. Through real-world data, white papers, and implementation experience, we’ll chart a path forward for virtual care that works—for patients, providers, and systems alike.
CODE Spotlight: Sanford Health: Blueprint for Virtual Center Infrastructure
Presented At: NEXUS | May 2025 Session Focus: Distance Site Telemedicine Entity (DSTE), Virtual Care Center, Rural health scalability, Streamlined credentialing & governance Speakers:Sharlene Thompson, Clinic Director of Operations, Virtual Care - Sanford Health
Sanford Health showcases how it’s reimagining rural care delivery through its new Virtual Care Center and the launch of a Distance Site Telemedicine Entity (DSTE)—a move that’s already accelerating provider onboarding and expanding access across a vast rural footprint.
Virtual Care Center: Built around clinical innovation, education, and testing, the center features simulation labs, AR/VR training, and a make-it space to prototype digital health solutions.
250,000 sq. mi. of Care: Sanford delivers virtual services across 78 specialties to 1.7M patients in the Midwest, with a focus on reaching the most remote communities.
Distance Site Telemedicine Entity (DSTE): Created to streamline credentialing, privileging, and quality oversight for fully remote clinicians—saving 300+ hours in onboarding time and enabling enterprise-wide telemedicine growth.
Next Up: Behavioral health and preventative care are the next clinical areas Sanford plans to move under its DSTE framework.
Quote from the Spotlight:
“We knew we had to think differently to support every dot on the map—not just one. The DSTE helps us hire, credential, and mobilize care at scale."
July 29, 2025 | 1:00 PM ET | Virtual CODE Virtual Roundtable: Clinical Command Center Models
Discover how leading health systems are standing up clinical command centers to improve efficiency, care coordination, and outcomes. This interactive roundtable will explore real-world models for co-location, staffing, infrastructure, governance, and change management, equipping you with actionable strategies to design or scale your own command center. Register Here »
November 16-18, 2025 | Orlando, FL ATA Insights Summit This ATA Insights Summit brings together healthcare executives to co-create implementation frameworks, operational tools, and strategic blueprints for digital transformation. Each focus area is shaped by collaborative sessions with clinical, operational, and digital leaders. Learn More and Apply »
Save the Date: December 10-12, 2025 | Washington, DC ATA EDGE Policy Conference The place where digital policy meets care model transformation. Shape care reimbursement, licensing, and workforce policy, alongside the systems and stakeholders defining what comes next. Learn More »
Save the Date: May 12-15, 2026 | Orlando, FL NEXUS 2026 The premier event dedicated to advancing innovation in digital health and care delivery. Bringing together experts, clinicians, C-suite leaders, researchers and investors, Nexus fosters collaboration, explores innovation, and provides tools to drive meaningful change.
Acute and Critical Care SIG Safety and Feasibility of a Two-Way Audiovisual Teleconferenced Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program
A real-world study comparing virtual and traditional center-based pulmonary rehabilitation found both approaches to be safe and feasible, with similar completion rates. However, participants in the virtual program lived significantly farther away, suggesting that virtual options can expand access for individuals with chronic lung disease. Read More »
Upcoming SIG Meetings
Digital Transformation SIG Meeting 🗓️ Thursday, July 17 🕛 2:00 PM ET
Remote Monitoring SIG Meeting 🗓️ Tuesday, July 22 🕛 3:00 PM ET
Pediatric Telehealth SIG Meeting 🗓️ Thursday July 31 🕛 2:00 PM ET
Telehealth Milestone! Access Made Permanent for Millions of American Workers
Passage of the historic reconciliation bill last Friday marks a significant step forward for telehealth, as the first temporary COVID-era flexibility to become a permanent provision, and gives commercially insured individuals permanent access to coverage of telehealth services, retroactive to December 31, 2024, when the original, temporary provision expired.
Having reached this milestone, ATA Action continues to advocate for its other top policy priorities: to make telehealth permanent for Medicare beneficiaries and the Acute Hospital Care at Home program, enabling safe remote prescribing of controlled substances, supporting access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDTs), and expanding coverage for Virtual Foodcare, including Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT).
“Telehealth stands out as a bright spot in the final reconciliation package – a policy unicorn – achieving unwavering support from both sides of the isle, in both chambers. We believe this bodes well for the future of other critical telehealth policies requiring Congressional action. “While many of the provisions in final legislation will create challenges for our healthcare system and the Medicare population, inclusion of this permanent telehealth provision clearly demonstrates the relentless bipartisan, bicameral support that telehealth has experienced over the past five years.” Kyle Zebley, executive director, ATA Action and senior vice president, public policy, ATA
ATA Action Submits Comments to Health Subcommittee of U.S. House Ways and Means in Support of Digital Health Data
ATA Action submitted comprehensive recommendations and data in support of how digital health data can help improve patient health, and the integration of technology-enabled tools and services – including real-time video visits, remote patient monitoring (RPM), digital therapeutics, artificial intelligence (AI), audio-only visits, and asynchronous care solutions – to provide patients with high-quality, continuous, and personalized care. Read our full statement here.
Digital Therapeutics Companies Calling for Changes to Reimbursement Approach in Upcoming 2026 Physician Fee Schedule
In the 2025 physician fee schedule (PFS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established the first Medicare codes for a class of digital therapeutics – digital mental health treatment (DMHT) devices – and instructed Medicare Administrator Contractors (MACs) to determine reimbursement rates for one of the new Medicare codes (G0552) that reimburse providers for supplying patients with DMHT devices and initial education. This has led to low and inconsistent Medicare payments for DMHT devices, prompting digital therapeutics companies to urge CMS to change digital therapeutics reimbursement in the upcoming 2026 PFS.
While ATA Action does not comment on pricing, this week Inside Health Policy reported that one of the companies updated its original payment rate originally set at roughly $128, while another manufacturer reported a reimbursement rate for their DMHT devices at around $1,000. As it’s expected that providers will file more G0552 claims in the future, “a possible regulatory shift in the 2026 physician fee schedule could fundamentally change G0552 reimbursements.”
New Energy & Commerce Health Panel Chair Pledges Continued Support for Telehealth
U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA) is replacing longtime telehealth champion Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA) as chair of the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee. This is a pivotal committee that oversees healthcare issues, including telehealth and telecommunications.
Rep. Griffith has also supported the expansion of telehealth in rural areas and its integration into hospital systems and believes he can secure the necessary bipartisan support to make telehealth a permanent part of care delivery.
State Policy Updates
On Monday Governor Josh Stein of North Carolina signed H 546 which modernized various laws pertaining to the Medicaid program, including a significant step forward for telehealth Medicaid providers. Specifically, Part III of the bill ensures that health care providers and provider groups duly licensed by North Carolina that provide healthcare services exclusively through telehealth shall not be required to maintain a physical presence or in-State service address in North Carolina to be considered eligible for enrollment as a Medicaid provider. This will expand patient access to care and choice, and help address provider shortages, especially in rural and underserved communities. ATA Action previously sent a letter of support for North Carolina S 369, which included this important language before it was rolled into H 546.
Learn more about ATA Action and how you can get involved.Click here!
From Washington, DC — with 🧡 for the work our community leads in care.
ATA, 601 13th St NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, United States
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