This month Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed into state law a bill expanding telehealth services.
As reported in the Denver Business Journal, the new law “… requires insurers to reimburse healthcare providers for telehealth services statewide.” Previously, state law required reimbursement only in counties with 150,000 residents or fewer. Now all Colorado payers will be required to pay for telehealth services.
Dr Fred Thomas, director of telemedicine at Colorado Children’s Hospital, noted “By monitoring (all patients state-wide), more closely from either their homes or from local doctors’ offices, clinicians can keep their disease in check and reduce future complications and costs of care …”
In Idaho, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, Governors Butch Otter, Dennis Daugaard, Gary Herbert and Matt Mead, respectively, have signed into law bills allowing participation in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, model legislation authored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB).
The FSMB Compact provides for an expedited licensure process for credentialed/eligible physicians, allowing license portability across state lines, enabling telemedicine, while preserving every states’ own protocol for medical board regulations.
From WyomingNews.com, “Wyoming became the first state in the nation to join the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact when Governor Mead signed the bill adopting the Compact at the end of February.”
“Wyoming is so small that we just can’t support large numbers of highly specialized physicians, so (our residents) often have to go across the border to Salt Lake City, Denver or Billings to get their care,” said Kevin Bohnenblust, executive director of the Wyoming Board of Medicine.
As reported in ModernHealthcare.com, “Bills authorizing their state medical boards to enter into the Compact have been passed in three states – Idaho, Montana and West Virginia, where they are awaiting their governors’ signatures.
Bills to adopt the Compact have been introduced in legislatures in 11 states – Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.”
Click here for the article from WyomingNews.com on the physician licensure compact.
Click here for the article from ModernHealthcare.com on the physician licensure compact.
Click here to track progress of the Interstate Licensure Compact.
Click here for the Idaho law on the physician licensure compact.
Click here for the South Dakota law on the physician licensure compact.
Click here for the Utah law on the physician licensure compact.
