The AAMC joined 50 other higher education associations in a March 8 letter urging Congress to pass the Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment Act (TREAT, H.R. 708, S. 168).
The letter follows a March 2 House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing on the future of telehealth that featured comments by several witnesses and members of Congress in support of the TREAT Act [see Washington Highlights, March 5]. The bill would allow health care providers who hold a valid license in good standing in at least one state to temporarily practice in all other states for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The letter states, “As the hearing made abundantly clear, even as the use of telehealth and tele-mental health has risen dramatically during the COVID-19 crisis, state licensure rules and complexity remain an impediment to providing much-needed health and behavioral care via telehealth technology to patients, including college students, across state lines. In response, Congress should enact the [TREAT Act] as soon as possible to address this urgent problem now while the best path to longer term licensure reform is explored.”
The AAMC joined the higher education community in a similar letter last year after the TREAT Act was originally introduced [see Washington Highlights, Dec. 18, 2020].