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Telehealth Programs Department of Health and Human Services
93.211
The purpose of the Telehealth Network Program (TNGP) is to fund programs that demonstrate how telehealth networks improve healthcare services in rural and underserved communities. The Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) are designed to expand the availability of technical assistance in the development of telehealth services, leveraging the experience of mature programs with expertise in providing and implementing telehealth services. The Licensure Portability Grant Program (LPGP) supports state professional licensing boards to carry out programs under which licensing boards of various states cooperate to develop and implement state laws and related policies that will reduce statutory and regulatory barriers to telehealth. The Evidence-Based Telehealth Network Program (EB-TNP) increases access to healthcare services utilizing Direct to Consumer technologies. It enhances the existing health care infrastructure and increases access to care for underserved populations utilizing synchronous video visits and remote patient monitoring for primary focus areas such as behavioral health, primary care, and acute care. It also conducts evaluations of those efforts to establish an evidence base for assessing the effectiveness of telehealth care for patients, providers, and payers. The Telehealth Centers of Excellence (COEs) assess specific telehealth uses, operate as incubators to pilot, track and refine telehealth, examine the efficacy of telehealth services in rural and urban underserved areas and explore new telehealth applications for telehealth research and resources. The Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program (TTELP) purpose is to connect specialists at academic medical centers with primary care providers in rural and underserved areas, providing evidence-based training and support to help them treat patients with complex conditions in their communities. The Telehealth Research Center Program supports policy-relevant, clinically informed, and rapid response telehealth research to expand the evidence base and comprehensive evaluation of nationwide telehealth investments in rural and/or urban underserved populations. The Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Evidence Based Telehealth Network Program (EB-TNP) integrates behavioral health services into primary care settings using telehealth technology through telehealth networks and evaluates the effectiveness of such integration. The Technology-enabled Collaborative Learning Program (TCLP) evaluates, develops, and expands the use of technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity building models for health care providers and other professionals to improve retention of health care providers and increase access to health care services.
This chart shows obligations for the program by fiscal year. All data for this chart was provided by the
administering agency and sourced from SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, and Treasury.gov.
For more information on each of these data sources, please see the
About the data page.
Telehealth Network Grant Program • By August 2019, 204 rural schools, in high poverty areas, received telehealth services as a result of this Program. Evidence Based Tele-Behavioral Health Program • Improved access to quality services through offering continuity of behavioral health care with a trusted provider. The providers experienced reduced no show rates for patients due to the decrease in travel, patients are able to access providers closer to home. • Increased innovative ways to utilize telehealth. One program is utilizing telehealth on a mobile van to provide Medication Assisted Treatment for Substance Use Disorder patients. Centers of Excellence Program • Produced over 25 publications and many presentations and reports on telehealth • COEs have consulted with over 70 organizations that include academic, government, or private health systems to provide TA. Licensure Portability Grant Program • The program continues to educate and engage stakeholders from telehealth and multi-state health care provider organizations about the benefits of the IMLC in reducing administrative burdens for clinicians using telemedicine or other healthcare services in multiple jurisdictions. • The program continues to develop and maintain a comprehensive psychology licensure focused research center that combines multiple points of data. Telehealth Resource Centers Program • In 2019, the TRCs increased their outreach and education with nearly 9,000 attending their webinar trainings and have reached over 7,000 through regional conferences and training events with audience members of primarily state leaders, health system executives, and medical providers. • In 2019, they developed several new telehealth educational materials such as the Telehealth Coordinator eTraining Toolkit, Telegentics Toolkit, Digital Health Training Modules, 50 State Telehealth Laws, Regulations and Medicaid Reimbursement Policies Report, and a Physician Assistant Telehealth Survey Report.
Telehealth Network Grant Program • By August 2020, 204 rural schools, in high poverty areas, received telehealth services as a result of this Program. Evidence Based Tele-Behavioral Health Program • Improved access to quality services through offering continuity of behavioral health care with a trusted provider at over 60 sites. • Increased access to specialty providers (i.e. Psychiatry) closer to home. • Increased innovative ways to utilize telehealth. One program is utilizing telehealth on a mobile van to provide Medication Assisted Treatment for Substance Use Disorder patients. • In year 2 (Aug. 2019-Sept. 2020) awardees presented at local, regional, and national conferences about tele-behavioral health data and best practices. Centers of Excellence Program • In Year 3, the Telehealth COEs served over 6,000 patients and supported Community Health Centers and School Districts with telehealth services. Awardees spanned over 30 individual projects including focus on COVID-19 and resulting in over 40 publications and reports on telehealth. COEs have consulted with over 70 organizations that include academic, government, or private health systems to provide TA. Licensure Portability Grant Program • The program continues to educate and engage stakeholders from telehealth and multi-state health care provider organizations about the benefits of the IMLC in reducing administrative burdens for clinicians using telemedicine or other healthcare services in multiple jurisdictions. • The program continues to develop a licensure compact for Physician Assistants. • The program continues to develop and maintain a comprehensive psychology licensure focused research center that combines multiple points of data. • Additional one-time funding under the CARES Act – Coronavirus Licensure Portability Grant Program funding was used to create resources to address challenges for telehealth providers and to add new capacity to help a range of clinicians working with different licensure boards (e.g., physician, nurses, psychologists) to develop and implement strategies to streamline the process for multi-state licensure procedure(s).
Telehealth Resource Centers Program • In 2020, the Telehealth Resource Centers had a 285% increase in direct technical assistance requests between March and October 2020 (as compared to between March and October 2019). • In 2020, the TRCs annually produced dozens of webinars and over 600 training events, hosted regional or state conferences attended by almost 10,000 people and, in total, serve over 50,000 clients annually. • In 2020, the TRCs developed several new telehealth innovations, such as developing interactive digital maps to help consumers identify telehealth resources local to them, a comprehensive telehealth training course to meet state certification (Washington), and maintaining the accuracy of all of their policy guidance for each state, as rapid changes occur during the pandemic, including: current state laws, reimbursement policies, and legislation tracking (CCHP). The TRCs also began work on a best practices guide based on lessons from the field during the pandemic to ensure continued improvement to telehealth delivery after the public health emergency.
Telehealth Network Grant Program • By August 2021, 8 rural communities have access to tele-behavioral health services where access did not exist in the community prior to this Program. Evidence Based Telehealth Network Program funded 11 recipients in September 2021 to expand access to Direct to Consumer healthcare across 11 states. Telehealth Centers of Excellence Program (COEs) • Assembled a team of 50 investigators to support over 30 projects that include evaluation, analysis and implementation of innovative approaches to telehealth supporting over 7,500 patients as well as providing technical assistance, workforce support and Project ECHO. The COEs have produced over 75 publications and reports on telehealth and provided 200 presentations. The COEs collaborate with Community Health Centers, School Districts, State Departments of Education State Health Departments, the National Quality Forum, ONC, ATA, SEARCH, and academic and private health systems as well as HRSA stakeholders including Telehealth Resource Centers and Telehealth Focused Rural Health Research Centers. Licensure Portability Grant Program • The program continues to educate and engage stakeholders from telehealth and multi-state health care provider organizations about the benefits of Licensure Compacts in reducing administrative burdens for clinicians using telemedicine or providing other healthcare services in multiple jurisdictions. • The program continues to develop a licensure compact for Physician Assistants. • Launched a comprehensive psychology licensure focused research center website that combines multiple points of data. • Additional one-time funding under the CARES Act – Coronavirus Licensure Portability Grant Program funding was used to create resources to address challenges for telehealth providers and to add new capacity to help a range of clinicians working with different licensure boards (e.g., physician, nurses, psychologists) to develop and implement strategies to streamline the process for multi-state licensure procedure(s). Telehealth Resource Centers Program • In 2020, the Telehealth Resource Centers had a 285% increase in direct technical assistance requests between March and October 2020 (as compared to between March and October 2019). • In 2020, the TRCs annually produced dozens of webinars and over 600 training events, hosted regional or state conferences attended by almost 10,000 people and, in total, serve over 50,000 clients annually. • In 2020, the TRCs developed several new telehealth innovations, such as developing interactive digital maps to help consumers identify telehealth resources local to them, a comprehensive telehealth training course to meet state certification (Washington), and maintaining the accuracy of all of their policy guidance for each state, as rapid changes occur during the pandemic, including: current state laws, reimbursement policies, and legislation tracking (CCHP). The TRCs also successfully launched a best practices guide based on lessons from the field during the pandemic to ensure continued improvement to telehealth delivery after the public health emergency. • Telehealth Broadband Pilot (TBP) Program • In 2021, TTAC, the program implementation grantee, formed a formal Steering Committee to guide the TBP Program, and established a Data Analysis Technical Design Committee to design the technology to measure broadband. TTAC entered into the beta testing phase, readying 65 broadband assessment devices for deployment among four states. • RTEC, the evaluation grantee, mapped and assessed broadband capacity across several existing programs and states, using existing public broadband data. RTEC also created a survey for implementation across the four states to understand perceived benefits and barriers of expanding broadband capacity for telehealth service, including willingness-to-pay. Account Identification • In the first six months of the Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program (TTELP), more than 100 ECHO telementoring sessions reached over 100 different organizations from all fifty states.
The Telehealth Network Grant Program for emergency services promotes rural tele-emergency services by enhancing telehealth networks to deliver 24-hour Emergency Department consultation services via telehealth and has served approximately 13,000 patients. In addition, the Evidence Base Telehealth Network Program for Direct-to-Consumer services served approximately 9,000 patients.
The Telehealth Resource Centers have provided over 6,000 technical assistance requests to assist providers with implementing telehealth and understanding evolving telehealth policy. In addition, the National Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center, continues to implement the Telehealth Broadband Pilot Program, which now has over 350 broadband measurement devices within the four target states – Alaska, Michigan, Texas, and West Virginia—that have resulted in over 290,000 bandwidth tests.
The Telehealth Centers of Excellence have contributed to the evidence-base for telehealth with over 20 published articles to date on topics such as telehealth costs and utilization and remote patient monitoring.
The Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program recipients held nearly 3,000 provider-to-provider learning sessions with rural primary care providers focusing on issues such as behavioral health and Long COVID. Through the Licensure Portability Grant Program, grantees developed tools such as the Provider Bridge to provide key information for health care professionals across various disciplines, with over 145,000 providers registered to use the platform.
The Telehealth Network Grant Program for emergency services promotes rural tele-emergency services by enhancing telehealth networks to deliver 24-hour Emergency Department consultation services via telehealth and has served approximately 15,000 patients.
The Evidence Base Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth Network Program demonstrates how health networks can increase access to health care services utilizing telehealth technologies, and evaluates those efforts to establish an evidence base for assessing the effectiveness of telehealth care for patients, providers, and payers. These Direct-to-Consumer services have served over 10,000 patients.
The Telehealth Resource Centers have provided over 7,000 technical assistance requests to assist providers with implementing telehealth and understanding evolving telehealth policy.
The Telehealth Centers of Excellence have contributed to the evidence-base for telehealth
with over 25 publications produced to date on topics such as telehealth costs and utilization and remote patient monitoring.
The Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program recipients have reached more than 12,000 health care providers with provider-to-provider learning sessions focusing on
issues such as behavioral health and Long COVID.
Through the Licensure Portability Grant Program, grantees developed and enhanced tools such as the Provider Bridge with over 269,000 registered health care providers. This initiative provides key information for health care professionals across various disciplines who are willing to provide in-person care or telehealth services during emergencies and natural disasters.
The Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Evidence Based Telehealth Network Program (EB-TNP) project period began on September 30, 2024 and is currently operating across 15 States and two Territories. The BHI EB-TNP is currently in the first year of the period of performance.
The Telehealth Research Center Program has contributed to the evidence-base for telehealth with over 10 published articles and 16 presentations at conferences in FY23 and over 25 to date on topics such as telehealth equity, telehealth clinical outcomes, costs and utilization.
The Technology-enabled Collaborative Learning Program (TCLP) will use technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity building models to improve retention of health care providers and increase access to health care services. The TCLP is in its first year of the period of performance.
Single Audit Applies (2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F):
For additional information on single audit requirements for this program, review the current Compliance Supplement.
OMB is working with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and agency offices of inspectors general to include links to relevant oversight reports. This section will be updated once this information is made available.
