Count Florida among the growing list of states debating whether to allow virtual medical visits.
State Sens. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, and Aaron Bean, R-Jacksonville, recently introduced a bill that would allow doctors to connect with patients via video. While previous attempts to pass this legislation have failed, Joyner says she's more optimistic this time because she eliminated language in the bill that would have required Medicaid to reimburse clinicians at the same rate as they do for an in-person visit.
According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, insurers had lobbied against previous versions of the bill because they didn't want to reimburse equally for both types of visits. Joyner told Government Technology that she removed the language to allow insurers to negotiate reimbursements with providers.
“In some cases, the insurance payer may also be providing more than monetary reimbursement initially,” she said. “They may also be providing the equipment necessary to conduct the telemedicine visits, so some insurers and providers might argue the payment parity would preclude these unique arrangements.”
As of February 2015, at least 23 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that require private payers to reimburse telemedicine services at rates equal to in-person visits, according to the American Telemedicine Association. In addition, as of September 2014, the Center for Connected Health Policy says, Medicaid programs in 46 states reimburse for live video consults. Some also reimburse for store-and-forward services, remote patient monitoring and hosting telemedicine services.
Among other states debating telemedicine/telehealth legislation, Minnesota, Idaho and Colorado are looking at bills that would require payers to reimburse for telemedicine, including video visits. In Texas, meanwhile, the state's medical board will decide next month whether to change its rules that prohibit physicians from prescribing medications to patients based on a phone or online consult, before seeing the patient in person.
“Telemedicine maximizes the use of new resources and medical technology,” Joyner told Government Technology. “It has the ability to connect Floridians to quality medical care they may otherwise (not) be able to reach because (a doctor) is too far away, they don’t have transportation, or they are unable to leave home.”
According to a summary of the Joyner/Bean bill, it "establishes that the standard of care for a telehealth service is the same as the standard of care for a health professional providing in-person services," and notes that a telehealth provider must "document healthcare services in the patient's medical record under the same standard as for in-person care."
The bill defines telehealth as "the use of synchronous or asynchronous telecommunications to perform services that include, but are not limited to, patient assessment, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, monitoring, transfer of medical data and provision of patient and professional health-related education."
The bill prohibits the use of telemedicine to prescribe controlled substances for chronic non-malignant pain, as well as prescribing lenses, spectacles, eyeglasses, contact lenses or other optical lenses. It also excludes audio-only transmissions, e-mail messages and faxes, as well as consults between licensed Florida providers and providers licensed in another state when the Florida provider maintains responsibility for the patient in this state.
The bill, SB 478, is backed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Medical Association and Florida Hospital Group and is currently being reviewed by the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. If passed, it would take effect on July 1.
