Center for Connected Health Policy

That meant CCHP’s scope extended to cover federal policy as well as state policies within all 50 states, not just California. The federal work primarily has CCHP act as a source of technical assistance on telehealth policy to the regional telehealth resource centers (RTRCs) who are under the same grant program. However, over the years, CCHP has helped shape this program based upon the needs it saw in the nation. Some of the things CCHP does is track all of the Medicaid telehealth policies, laws, and regulations for all 50 states and on the federal level. We also provide direct one-on- one technical assistance to federal and state policymakers, hospitals, national organizations, and others when they have questions on telehealth policy. In addition, CCHP conducts research projects and studies related to telehealth policy and have published reports on the use of telehealth to treat substance use disorders and another infectious disease, tuberculosis. There are 13 other grantees underneath the same federal grant program as CCHP, also called telehealth resource centers (TRCs). There is one additional national center which focuses on technology and the aforementioned twelve RTRCs who focus on specific states, ensuring all states are covered. The RTRCs focus primarily on program operational technical assistance, helping providers start telehealth programs. Several years ago, all fourteen TRCs agreed to work collaboratively to ensure more efficient use of our federal funding by working on specific projects to decrease duplication and waste. The 14 TRCs formed the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers (NCTRC) to house this work and CCHP was selected to act as the Administrator of the group. When the pandemic struck and the pivot was made towards telehealth, CCHP and the rest of the TRCs were called into action immediately. The RTRCs were providing on-the-ground assistance to those health systems and providers