Telehealth News

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Try Again to Pass Telehealth Legislation

After a bill was shot down last year due to arguments over payment parity, lawmakers in the Keystone State are debating a new bill that would enable payers and providers to negotiate reimbursements.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- Pennsylvania is trying again to pass comprehensive telehealth legislation.

State Sen. Elder Vogel last month introduced The Telemedicine Act (SB 857), which aims to establish definitions for telemedicine and telehealth, provide temporary evaluation and treatment guidelines and ground rules for reimbursement, and give state departments up to two years to draft permanent rules and regulations.

The bill follows last year’s defeat of SB 780, also sponsored by Vogel, which would have defined key components of telemedicine, set licensing requirements and required payers to reimburse telemedicine services at the same rate as in-person services. That bill passed in the Senate but fell in the House, where opponents fought against payment parity and argued that payers should have the right to set their own reimbursement rates.

The new bill includes asynchronous (store-and-forward) and remote patient monitoring technologies in its definitions, giving healthcare providers in the Keystone State the opportunity to use these fast-growing connected health services. But it prohibits phone calls, audio-only communications, fax, e-mail, text and instant messaging and online questionnaires.

In addition, the bill allows providers of online refractive services to continue offering those tests as long as they state clearly that the tests are not ocular health exams.

With regard to insurance coverage, the new bill would allow providers and insurers to negotiate rates for telehealth coverage. It would also mandate that payers provide coverage for telehealth as they would for in-person services, prohibit them from denying coverage solely because it’s provided through telemedicine, and ensure that telehealth coverage be “consistent with the insurer’s medical policies.”  

The bill puts Pennsylvania on a path similar to that taken by Florida, where telehealth regulations signed into law in June allow providers and payers to negotiate reimbursement rates. In California, a bill sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk awaiting his signature would also allow negotiations.

Roughly a dozen states have passed legislation mandating payment parity for telehealth, and some states have seen those bills fail due to strong opposition from payers.

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