CMS chief Seema Verma on President Trump's telehealth executive order
President Trump has been delivering on his health care promises, says Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
President Trump's executive order aimed at boosting health care by extending telehealth policies will be a "tremendous boon" for rural America, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma told "Special Report" Monday.
Verma told host Bret Baier that telemedicine has become increasingly important due to the coronavirus pandemic, with citizens in less populated parts of the country having difficulty accessing proper care in their communities.
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"We've been providing telehealth services at a rate and a speed during the pandemic ... and the president wants to make that benefit permanent for Medicare recipients, and that's going to be a tremendous boon for people living in rural areas but also for the entire country," she said.
The president's order mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "announce a new payment model testing innovations that empower rural hospitals to transform healthcare in their communities on a broader scale." It comes after Trump signed four executive orders last month aimed at bringing down prescription drug prices.
Verma praised Trump for "delivering on his promises" and "tackling some of the most difficult issues in our health care system all trying to bring down the cost of health care."
"The president is focused on making sure that all Americans have access to affordable health care," she said.
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"Already, we have hospitals posting even on Medicare, so many of the efforts he has made have resulted in lower costs for patients and even on the exchanges, premiums have gone down as well. So we are focused on actually taking those actions, going to deliver results for the American people."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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