The final word: Reps. Buck and Ginal lead effort to update Colorado telehealth law

Sunday, March 01, 2015 11:46 AM

by Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, and Rep. Joann Ginal, D-Fort Collins

The telehealth phenomenon – care delivered remotely via computers, cameras, smartphones or other devices – has been pushing back barriers and provoking a national policy debate among physicians, plans and regulators on where to set those lines.

Every state has struggled with where to draw the line between face-to-face and virtual services, in some instances resulting in medical licensure board sanctions, lawsuits and countersuits. In state houses across the country, most legislators understand there is a balancing act between convenience, timely care access and clinically appropriate standards of care. As more studies have come on line assessing efficacy and patient safety, clinical guidance regarding telehealth services has evolved to the point that where we and our colleagues here in Colorado have passed legislation to expand the use of those technologies within a clinically sound framework beyond rural and (by definition) underserved communities, and assure parity between those services and face-to-face care.

HB15-1029 will expand access to telehealth by removing a restriction that limits payment for this technology to rural counties with a population of 150,000 or less and by prohibiting health benefit plans from requiring in-person care delivery if consulting, monitoring and other care can effectively be administered remotely. It will remove the requirement for a provider to demonstrate a barrier to in-person care; prevent health plans from reimbursing providers for telehealth differently than for in-person care; and prevent health plans from charging different deductibles, co-payments or co-insurance amounts or setting different annual or lifetime dollar maximums for telehealth services. Most importantly, we believe this bill will help to alleviate the stress of Colorado’s doctor shortage by extending your reach around the state, while providing cost savings for the health care community and patients in general.

We are pleased to report that as of publication, this bill has passed out of the House and the Senate and is heading to the governor’s desk for signature. Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, and Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, R-Thornton, are our co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate.

The Colorado Medical Society has been instrumental in assisting our research as we worked together to develop this legislation. Last fall, the CMS House of Delegates set a framework by formally supporting the basic tenets of this legislation – to expand telehealth applications – and your Board of Directors subsequently developed an extensive set of guidelines, localizing the Federation of Medicine and the AMA’s broader efforts. Our legislation was built from that excellent policy work.

The benefits of telehealth are self-evident. Physicians can reach patients who are housebound, institutionalized, or otherwise unable to drive or ride to their clinic. Telehealth services also permit an unprecedented means of remotely monitoring patients’ conditions, especially those suffering from chronic disease. Acute episodes can be avoided, hospitalizations and readmissions minimized. Care is more readily coordinated with other community-based services, and state-of-the-art digital diagnostic technologies and access to specialists can be deployed in settings that used to be unavailable or significantly delayed. All this is done through secure, encrypted networks. Independent polling has consistently shown strong public support for these kinds of services.

Along with our colleagues, we are proud to contribute to this important work of breaking down barriers in health care to assure you have all the necessary tools to provide the right care at the right time, setting and value. Thank you for your support and efforts in this exciting endeavor.