U.S. Reps Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. and Robin Kelly, D-Ill., convened yesterday with Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum, with the aim to stress the importance of noting barriers to healthcare faced by people throughout the country.

Even though COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the potential of telemedicine to expand access to care, it also highlighted existing disparities in the system, noted the Congress members.

Access to broadband is an issue, as pointed out by many telehealth advocates. Other major challenges are digital literacy and the insurance coverage of remote monitoring devices.

Puckrein said that the divide is beginning to appear. For example, the data reveals that not all diabetic patients have access to devices that monitor blood glucose.

Kelly stressed that some Americans don’t have or cannot afford a phone. So, will we allow them to be left behind in this revolution?

Her bill "Evaluating Disparities and Outcomes of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Emergency Act of 2020," as pointed out by Kelly, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and co-chair of the House Tech Accountability Caucus is an important step forward to address those disparities.

The bill introduced in June, required the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to carry out a study within a year of the end of the emergency period summarizing healthcare utilization patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kelly said that the bill calls for an analysis of the use of telehealth services broken down by geographic region, race and ethnicity and income level. It will draw attention to disparities aggravated by the digital divide.

Eshoo, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, noted that we need the expansion of broadband, but on the Medicare side, we need to ensure that when we make telehealth permanent the cutting-edge technologies are a part of the reimbursement. Else telehealth won’t work.