The bipartisan legislation requires that payers, including Medicaid, cover telehealth visits for physical, behavioral and mental healthcare as long as they are delivered via a HIPAA-compliant platform. Telehealth services covered include assessment, diagnosis, consultation, remote monitoring and treatment.
The bill also nixes the requirement that patients have a pre-existing relationship with a provider to participate in telehealth and prohibits insurers from establishing extra certification or licensure requirements for telehealth providers.
Under the legislation, telehealth services must be reimbursed by payers at the same rate as in-person services. The Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing is also required to reimburse federally qualified health centers, rural health centers and the Indian Health Service for telehealth services.
More articles on telehealth:
3 ways to make telehealth more equitable
Top 5 telehealth procedure codes and diagnoses
Telehealth providers doing ‘more visits than humanly possible’ in a day draw CMS scrutiny
