My name is Carol Yarbrough. If this is all you want to listen to and you look at the What's Available To You on this website, I just want to learn about the waivers. OK. 

My name is Carol Yarbrough. I've presented for other parts of fascinating yet useful and money making service value apartment earlier. But I want to tell you what's going on through September 30. 

Next slide. Where did my cursor go? There we go. Just to let you know, it's mostly about non-behavioral health. Non-behavioral health is embedded into the Social Security Act that you can perform outside of a geographic limitation. 

There's no limitations based on census or provider shortage area because you, as a provider, our shortage. Behavioral health is a needed service wherever you may go. Also, there's no limitation on where the patient can be. 

Patient can be at home. Patients usually going to be at home for any telebehavioral health you're going to provide. So all eligible practitioners can furnish telehealth services, as well as FQHCs and RHCs. They can be distant site providers through the end of this calendar year, actually. 

What the waiver does do for you is a behavioral health person, it's delaying the mental health in-person requirement. Now, I know that is hard baked by law into the Social Security Act. It will take another act of Congress to remove that, like Congress person. 

So we'll see what happens in September for that, if we get another two-year extension, three-month extension, what have you. What the extension also does is it allows for audio only, which you all get forever and ever for medical appointments. 

Now, note that if you're a psychiatrist, and you perform a medical appointment to a patient's home for medication management, you will still be able to get reimbursed past the waiver cutoff. Medical appointment, meaning I have a cold. I have a sinus infection. Can you renew my prescription for X, Y, and Z, and let's talk about how it makes me feel, blah, blah, blah? 

It just means anything else. It has nothing to do with behavioral health. Everything else is encompassed as well. Continue to allow telehealth be used to conduct face to face encounter recertification for folks eligible for hospice care. 

Wow, wouldn't that be great to be in there forever so we're not making our hospice enrollees come into a clinic to have someone say, yep, we're still in hospice? And then for some regions and some states, it extends the acute hospital at home program. 

You're not discharged from inpatient. You get sent home hospital bed, all this stuff. People heal better at home. Don't want to see in the hospital. Who wants to stay in the hospital? I want to go home. That's what everybody says. I want to go home. 

Well, we're not going to discharge you, but we're going to continue to provide hospital services for you in the home. So that's what this waiver also extends. If there are federal prescribing rules, there are DEA rules delayed until the end of this year. 

And this includes-- let me give a shout out to the Center for Connected Health Policy on this slide. Because I may or may not have borrowed it. Telemedicine prescribing of buprenorphine and telemedicine for Veterans Affairs patients, this has been delayed until December 31. 

And there had been a cessation of an extension of prescribing controlled medications. It has been extended through the end of this year as well. There are things considered. And we've been-- us in-- us in the medical field have been waiting for this special registration rule. 

They're like, hey, I already have DEA licensure. Why can't that be proof that I've been cleared? Well, there's a special registration rule. And it's still in proposed status with those above rules for buprenorphine and Veterans Affairs patients. 

There was a comment period through March 18. People are very verbal and very about this rule. It took them forever because-- to read the first set of comments, because there were like 30,000 letters submitted. So the delays get delayed and delayed and delayed. 

Smart Act on the DEA's part to delay any kind of rule implementation finalization until December 31. So just know that. So you can still prescribe via audio, video, audio for prescribed or scheduled prescriptions medications. 

So the delay in enforcement. Now, of in-person visit requirements. So it was delayed until January 1 in the MPFS. It was somehow included in the waiver language. 

The in-person visit requirement is congressionally mandated. CMS really can't waive it, but suggesting a delay of enforcement would be great. We'll see what happens with that. Center for Connected Health Policy. Great fact sheets, great timelines. Go check it out. Thank you for your attention.