Editorial Staff

As COVID-19 Emergencies Ease, Some Progress on Telehealth Rules

/in , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

BOSTON, MA (Feb. 15, 2023) — As public health emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic come to an end, a new study from Pioneer Institute, Cicero Institute, and Reason Foundation rates every state’s telehealth laws. The report finds Arizona and Delaware rate best across four key telehealth policy areas, while highlighting some progress in New England.

Legislation in Vermont creates a clear path to allow out-of-state providers to see Vermont patients, although some barriers to access remain; in New Hampshire, new legislation gives a green light to providers to start a telehealth visit by any mode that works for them and their patients. While Massachusetts scores a “green” rating on three of the measures, the state continues to bar access to telehealth services across state lines.

With the three-year COVID-19 pandemic largely under control, the Biden administration recently announced plans to end the COVID-19 national public health emergency on May 11. Most states have already ended their public health emergency declarations, so the temporary orders and waivers that allowed millions of patients to access telehealth services during the pandemic need to be turned into permanent laws, or patients risk losing access to healthcare options and providers may lose significant incentives to innovate, a new report warns.

The policy brief rates all 50 states in four critical areas of telehealth policy and details what each state needs to do to improve.

Arizona and Delaware stand out as the only two states rated green for good in all four key telehealth law categories related to enabling patients to access high-quality telehealth care and giving healthcare providers the flexibility to provide a variety of services now and in the future. In contrast, three states—New Jersey, South Carolina, and Virginia—fail to score green in any of the four categories the report deems critical to today’s telehealth services and future innovation.

The report grades every state’s telehealth laws in four areas crucial to patients, quality of care, and creating a regulatory environment that doesn’t stifle future healthcare improvements. It recommends that states:

  • Should define telehealth in broad terms that do not favor one type of telehealth model, giving current patients options and leaving room for future innovations.
  • Allow modal neutrality so services can be provided via audio, video, text, email, and other modes of communication.
  • Allow patients to access telehealth services, doctors, and providers across state lines.
  • Allow doctors, nurse practitioners, and others to provide all the medical services they’re trained to provide.

“A surprising number of states have only made minor tweaks to their telehealth laws,” said Josh Archambault, coauthor of the policy brief and senior fellow at Pioneer Institute and the Cicero Institute. “Lawmakers must refocus their efforts to ensure their states have clear laws and guidelines in place so that patients and providers can benefit from today’s telehealth services and future innovations.”

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients discovered and utilized a variety of telehealth options that offered flexible, affordable, and high-quality care, and those options shouldn’t be taken away,” added Vittorio Nastasi, coauthor and a policy analyst at Reason Foundation. “States need to improve their laws so patients have as many quality care options as possible and the future healthcare system can become more patient-centric.”

The full report, State Policy Agenda for Telehealth Innovation, also outlines how each state can modernize and upgrade its telehealth laws without stifling future advancements.

Contact

Josh Archambault at (617) 645-7679 or jarchambault@pioneerinstitute.org

Get Updates On Our Healthcare Research and Events!

Related Posts:

Olympic-Scale Doctor Shortage: Tapping International Talent

Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's Senior Healthcare Policy Fellow Josh Archambault about the shortage of doctors in the U.S. and the potential for licensing reform to attract medical expertise from around the world to reduce future healthcare shortages and provide incentives for immigrating professionals to work in underserved communities.

How did COVID impact Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities?

Pioneer Institute has filed a Public Records Act request related to COVID's impact on Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities because the Institute believes this is a matter of obvious importance, both on principle (the public has a right to know the facts), and for purposes of evaluating – and where possible improving – public policy. 

Massachusetts Telehealth Report Card: Are We Embracing Disruption for Better Quality of Care?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault about his newest research paper, produced with the Cicero Institute and the Reason Foundation, on states' success in implementing telehealth to improve healthcare outcomes. They discuss how Massachusetts has used remote medicine to better reach patients and serve their needs.

Am I Contagious? Divining Covid’s Community Conundrum

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Alva10 CEO and precision medicine expert Hannah Mamuszka about which tests are best for determining who is contagious and the implications for the CDC’s new isolation recommendations.

Face Masks Lifted: Scientists Weigh In With Comprehensive Efficacy Studies

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Jonathan Darrow, about the observations of his recent paper, Evidence for Community Cloth Face Masking to Limit the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review, in which he examines the range, quality, and scientific observations of mask wearing efficacy studies.

Building Healthcare Bigger: New Bill Is Good Medicine or Ill-Designed Cost Shift

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Josh Archambault, Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow in Healthcare, about the healthcare provisions in the pending Build Back Better Act and their likely impact on the coverage and cost to Americans in the wake of Covid-19.

The Promise and Challenges of Rare Cancer Treatments

Dr. William Smith, Pioneer Institute's Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences, spoke about the challenges and opportunities for rare cancer treatments, in a video interview produced by Rare Cancers, a patient group based in Australia, for the November 26th CAN Forum. 

COVID’s Unintended Victims: Traditional Diseases Overlooked at the Public’s Peril

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences, Dr. Bill Smith, about his newest research paper, “An “Impending Tsunami” in Mortality from Traditional Diseases,” which sounds the alarm that the public health community’s focus on COVID-19 has caused many to avoid seeking medical attention for other illnesses. As a result, more Americans are dying from fear of COVID than from the disease itself.

Vaccine Development Renaissance: Pandemic Brings Niche Industry into Mainstream

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with virologist, Dr. Peter Kolchinsky, about the explosion of vaccine technologies and innovations brought into the spotlight by the massive investment to fight the pandemic, and dives deeply into the exciting promise of vaccines to combat an ever-widening range of disease.

Shifting COVID-19 Goalposts: Moving from Zero Infections to Zero Deaths

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with surgeon and author Dr. Marty Makary about the power and durability of vaccines, natural immunity and clinical therapies, that are overshadowed by the public health community's continued target of zero COVID-19 infections.