A trio of former Senators have launched the Alliance for Connected Care, which will aim to promote policy around telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott, and former Senator John Breaux, have started the alliance to establish a regulatory environment where patients have more access to connected care and providers are compensated for telehealth, regardless of circumstance. Thus far, they've gotten several telehealth vendors on board, including Verizon, WellPoint, Teladoc, HealthSpot, Doctor on Demand, Welch Allyn, and MDLIVE. Those companies, along with CVS, Walgreens, Care Innovations and Cardinal Health, are on the alliance's Board.
“It is time to make connected care a bipartisan priority in Washington,” Senator Lott said in a statement. “Imagine an elderly woman with diabetes who can consult a doctor about managing her disease without having to leave her home; or a working parent who can video chat with his child’s pediatrician; or a patient in need of mental health services, but too afraid to go to an office, now able to access care through a laptop; or a doctor who can monitor a patient already discharged from the hospital. We must improve access to the kinds of innovation that can improve patients’ lives.”
