CMS relaxes telemedicine rules

The agency that oversees Medicare issued new rules Monday that it said will make it easier for hospitals to use new technology when treating patients.

The regulations relax the process for using certain types of electronic communication, usually to connect doctors from large hospitals with patients in smaller, more remote hospitals. The smaller hospitals can now rely on data from the larger facilities when giving doctors permission to practice via an electronic connection, as opposed to conducting their own credentialing process.

The American Hospital Association praised the regulation.

“This change, in particular, is important so that patients can have the benefit of expert specialists working with their personal physicians to determine a diagnosis and monitor the treatment, even when the patient lives a considerable distance away from the specialist,” AHA Vice President Nancy Foster said in a statement.