{"id":14815,"date":"2016-06-23T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accessrx.com\/blog\/?p=14815"},"modified":"2014-06-23T09:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T16:00:10","slug":"lawmakers-learning-about-telemedicine-whats-next-m0530","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/lawmakers-learning-about-telemedicine-whats-next-m0530\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Now Learning About Telemedicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Telemedicine
Telemedicine consultation offers significant convenience and cost savings.<\/figcaption><\/figure> Telemedicine, also referred to as telehealth, provides virtual medical care via internet and telecommunications technology.<\/p>\n

Telemedicine can reduce the number of emergency visits to hospitals and cut the length of hospital admissions and can assist with healthcare delivery in several ways. For example, many US emergency departments have inadequate on-call coverage by specialists, and lack of specialist availability is strongly associated with poorer outcomes. But telemedicine can help alleviate this shortage by allowing specialists to work remotely with emergency departments. Telemedicine is also proving effective in remote monitoring of chronically ill patients and patients who have just been discharged from hospitals.<\/p>\n

Telemedicine is expected to grow rapidly in coming years, but there are still legal barriers based on old-school assumptions about medical care delivery. Traditional licensing laws assume face-to-face healthcare, while telemedicine uses service delivery at a distance, including across state lines, while states have different licensing requirements, medical boards, and regulations. Reimbursement issues also need to be ironed out, since Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers all use different definitions and requirements.<\/p>\n

States Embracing Telemedicine<\/strong><\/p>\n

More states now have telemedicine laws somewhere in the legislative process. Jon Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, says<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s double the action this year than it was last year. Not all of them will adopt the legislation, but a number of them will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most recently, Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada have signed telemedicine-related bills into law. Mississippi now allows insurance companies to reimburse doctors who use telemedicine to consult with patients in rural areas, and Vermont signed a new law focused on a pilot program studying the effects of telemedicine delivered outside healthcare facilities. The Affordable Care Act, which is adding millions of people to insurance rolls, is a big driver of the growth of telemedicine at the state level.
\nIn many areas of the country, telemedicine is not seen as a mainstream way to provide patient care, but rather as a bonus benefit for rural farming communities where access to healthcare services is limited. Despite private insurer enthusiasm for telemedicine, governmental attitudes toward telemedicine are only changing slowly, but several states, including Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri, have introduced legislation to expand telemedicine services.<\/p>\n

New Federal Regulations<\/strong><\/p>\n

On May 7, a rule was issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that has the potential to expand telemedicine adoption and save billions of dollars in healthcare costs<\/a>. The main provisions of the new CMS rule are:<\/p>\n