Ask Congress to Extend the Hospice Face-to-Face (F2F) Telehealth Flexibility

NAHC has started a grassroots advocacy campaign asking Congress to extend the COVID-related flexibility that is allowing hospices to perform the required face-to-face (F2F) eligibility recertification visit using telehealth. See the campaign and reach out to your members of congress to ask them to extend this flexibility here: https://p2a.co/vto2u7C.

Advocates are needed to weigh-in on this issue before this Friday, March 11, which is when the current government stopgap funding expires. A large, omnibus spending bill is expected to pass congress before then – this bill is the main legislative vehicle that we’d like to see a F2F telehealth extension included in. While an extension of other pandemic telehealth flexibilities is being considered for this bill, unfortunately the hospice F2F is not currently planned for inclusion. We need advocates to tell their elected officials how valuable this flexibility has been and that it should be extended beyond the end of the PHE.

Also – if you have any stories, anecdotes, or personal reflections on how the allowance to use telehealth for the F2F has benefited patients, families, and providers during the pandemic, and how you would continue to use it post-COVID, please send those to Davis Baird at [email protected]. Key congressional staff are open to hearing stories from the field about its utility, so please share.