The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous flaws in the healthcare system, some of which related to counterproductive restrictions on telehealth. Most states relaxed those constraints early in 2020, but it was already too late to avoid the damage to many patients, and many states are now reinstituting the cumbersome rules.
These telehealth obstacles predominantly protect more powerful healthcare businesses from competition, at the expense of patients and many physicians. Delays, cost, and inconvenience resulting from these unnecessary barriers do genuine harm.
What is your state legislature doing to expand or hinder your telehealth options? Here are a few highlights:
Virginia
Virginia has had a full telehealth bill docket recently, passing numerous improvements to access. The legislature granted more types of practitioners legal freedom to provide telehealth visits, and practitioners now have the ability to prescribe a wider range of medications without face-to-face appointments. Physicians still must provide significant oversight, but patients now have more care choices available.
Legislators also gave correctional facilities and forensic services more legal flexibility in telehealth. New laws enable more efficient mental health care, which often does not require a physical examination.
In a trend that increased access but may also concern some parents, Virginia schools also gained not only the freedom but the obligation to facilitate telehealth care for students. The law requires parental consent, but time will tell how faithfully and successfully school faculty adhere to the rules. Schools face withdrawal of federal funding and federal investigation for failure to comply, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin emphasized adherence to Virginia’s strong parental rights support, but this type of legislation always warrants attention from parents.
Utah
Like Virginia, Utah recently improved telehealth in correctional facilities. Again, the focus in corrections was virtual mental health care, a prime candidate for remote alternatives.
Like Virginia, Utah also improved access to telehealth in schools, while still stipulating parental consent. If this trend continues, parents will have added flexibility in care for their children, but they will also have more possible safety and privacy concerns.
Maryland
Although Maryland passed other telehealth bills, such as those increasing social worker license reciprocity, perhaps their most interesting current debate involves a proposed county-level change that might become a barometer to gauge popularity for similar proposals at the state level.
In Marlboro County, lawmakers just suggested a property tax increase to fund a free telehealth hotline. This idea prompted heated debate, with supporting residents pointing out that the rural area has been without a hospital for a decade, and others rightly noting that a tax increase forces the payment for the program on those who do not want it.
This raised a troubling issue in the debate about telehealth access. Contrary to the increased freedom that telehealth-positive laws offer, this proposal once again defines healthcare access as a forcibly tax-funded entitlement program, which ushers in more government intervention.
North Dakota
Although North Dakota made forward strides by improving telehealth reciprocity for dieticians and social workers, it also imposed a few restrictions.
Optometrist groups succeeded in preventing eye exams from taking place online until a doctor had first seen the patient in the office. Although the desire to ensure a physical exam might be understandable, anyone supporting this rule should keep in mind that adult patients ultimately have the right to guide their own care, particularly in the case of a simple vision exam.
Furthermore, polls consistently indicate that patients frequently skip routine eye tests entirely, due to the inconvenience of office appointments. The availability of online and telehealth vision tests increases the likelihood that such patients will at least get routine vision checks, which is surely preferable to no tests at all.
Conclusion
Emerging telehealth technology prompted the proliferation of related legislation across the country, and this movement promises to continue. Organizations including Cicero Institute and The Center for Connected Health Policy provide in-depth information about individual state telehealth law updates, and residents benefit from staying abreast of this news.