Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA)
Yesterday the state of Delaware became the 29th among these United States to have a telehealth parity law hit its books. Coincidentally, a few representatives in Congress also re-introduced a nationwide telehealth parity law similar to one the group put forward last year.
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed the bill into law after it unanimously passed both houses of the state's legislature. Like similar laws in other states, the legislation mandates that health insurers pay for telehealth services the same way they pay for their in-person equivalents and it helps protect patients from insurers shifting the costs of covering these services.
The law, which takes effect immediately, states: “Delaware is well-positioned to embrace efforts that will encourage health insurers and health care providers to support the use of telemedicine and that will also encourage all state agencies to evaluate and amend their policies and rules to foster and promote telemedicine services.”
Foley & Lardner's Nathaniel Lacktman, writing in The National Law Review, contends that Delaware's law is even a little bit more pro-telemedicine than similar laws enacted in other states.
"The changes to Delaware’s Insurance Code (Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 3370) are more provider and patient-friendly than some other states because it mandates both coverage parity and payment parity," he writes. "The law not only requires health plans to cover telehealth and telemedicine services for members, but health plans must pay the provider 'on the same basis and at least at the rate' the plan is required to pay for the same service if provided in-person. Moreover, the payment for telemedicine interactions must include reasonable compensation to the originating or distant site for the transmission cost incurred during the delivery of health care services."
The new law also defines telehealth as “the use of information and communications technologies consisting of telephones, remote patient monitoring devices or other electronic means which support clinical health care, provider consultation, patient and professional health-related education, public health, health administration, and other services as described in regulation.”
In related news at the federal level this week, legislators also floated a nationwide telehealth parity law. Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA), Gregg Harper (R-MS), Diane Black (R-TN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced the bill, called the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2015, yesterday just as the Delaware law went into effect. Thompson debuted the 2014 version of his bill almost exactly one year ago, prior to that he tried with similar legislation in 2012.
According to a statement from Thompson's office, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2015 would remove geographic barriers to allow telehealth services in rural, underserved and metropolitan areas; expand the list of providers eligible to provide telehealth services to include respiratory therapist, PT, OT, speech language pathologist, and audiologist; expand access to telestroke services; allow remote patient monitoring for heart failure, COPD, and diabetes patients; and allow the Medicare beneficiary’s home to serve as a site of care for home dialysis, hospice care, eligible outpatient mental health services, and home health services.
