It's hard to believe that another Fall is upon us, although recent weather here in the Northeast wouldn't be any indication of that! We hope that you've all enjoyed these last few weeks of Summer, and that you are as eager as we are to dive into exciting new opportunities to collaborate around telehealth. There is much to share in this edition of the NETRC newsletter. Please forgive the lengthy intro, but I hope you will find a few gems within. With that said, let's dive in! 

We were ecstatic to learn last month, that the NETRC team will have the privilege of continuing to serve as the Regional Telehealth Resource Center for the Northeast, through August 2020. Although we've had the opportunity to reach out to many of you over the past few weeks, we want to once again convey our sincere appreciation to our funders within HRSA's Office for Advancement of Telehealth, to our partners and stakeholders throughout the region, and to our colleagues with the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers. Your continued input, support and collaboration in expanding the reach and impact of telehealth efforts is invaluable to achieving our collective aims toward improved health access and outcomes.

While the summer months have certainly brought much needed sun and fun, they've also been packed full of great activity and new opportunities - below are just a few highlights we'd like to share from the last few weeks:

Please see the Fall Conference Calendar below for a number of additional events coming up - lots of great stuff!

There are also a number of opportunities for stakeholders to engage in and inform telehealth efforts moving forward, whether that is policy development within your organization or state, or policy and standards at the national level. For example, the CHRONIC Care Act, which supports expansion of telehealth utilization to address chronic disease for Medicare recipients, passed the Senate last week, with advocates hopeful that it will continue forward with bipartisan support. Another example - The Joint Commission (TJC) recently released their proposed telemedicine standards, which were met with initial concern among stakeholders. According to a September 14, 2017 update on Health Care Law Today, TJC will not move forward with its proposed ambulatory telemedicine standards at this time, but will continue to evaluate options. Additional comments may be sent to Mary Brockway, Director, Department of Standards and Survey Methods, The Joint Commission, at [email protected].  

As always, don't hesitate to reach out with your questions and ideas around how we can best support increased reach and impact of telehealth across the region. We're looking forward to working with you over the next three years and beyond - many thanks again for your ongoing engagement and support!

On behalf of the NETRC Team - Best Regards,