Arizona's
House and Senate health committees recently held a special joint meeting today
to talk about a new bill designed to redefine telemedicine, embrace
asynchronous and remote patient monitoring platforms and improve insurance
coverage.
February 07, 2019 - Arizona lawmakers are moving
forward with proposed legislation that would expand coverage for telemedicine
include more healthcare services, including asynchronous telehealth and remote
patient monitoring.
The state Senate and House Health and Human Services
committees recently held a special joint meeting to discuss how connected
care technologies can expand access to care and improve outcomes in the state.
The impetus for the meeting is SB
1089, which was introduced last month and unanimously passed by the
Senate Health and Human Services Committee this week. Among other things, the
bill redefines telemedicine to include asynchronous and remote patient
monitoring platforms as well as other healthcare services, rather than just
limiting the uses to certain specialties. It also prevents payers from
restricting virtual care coverage based on the type of service offered or a
patient’s location in an urban or rural area.
Arizona’s current telehealth guidelines limit the technology
to specialists who treat trauma, burns, cardiology, infectious diseases, mental
health disorders, neurologic diseases including strokes, dermatology and
pulmonology.
Several states are looking to rework their telehealth and
telemedicine laws in an effort to expand access and insurance coverage to
underserved populations. Among the most popular conversations at the state
level are proposals to include asynchronous (store-and-forward) telemedicine
and remote patient monitoring services, driven by the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services’ 2019 Physician Fee Schedule, which includes new
reimbursement opportunities for those models of care.
According to the Center for Connected Health Policy,
roughly 90 bills currently before state lawmakers address regulatory, licensing
and advisory board oversight of telehealth laws. Another 31 bills address
private payer reimbursement, while 39 target Medicaid coverage and one
addresses Medicare reimbursement. Other bills address issues including
cross-state licensing, pilot projects, online prescribing, defining the
provider-patient relationships and broadband coverage.
The joint hearing featured a presentation by Bart M.
Demaerschalk, MD, MSc, FAHA, FRCP(C), a professor of neurology, chairman of the
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine’s Cerebrovascular Diseases Division and
director of synchronous (telemedicine) care at the Mayo Clinic Center for
Connected Care in Phoenix. Demaerschalk has long been a telemedicine advocate, particularly in telestroke care.
Among the hospitals and health systems in Arizona now using
telemedicine is Summit Healthcare Regional Medical Center in Show Low.
In a recent interview with an Arizona TV station,
the hospital’s telehealth specialist, Kristi Iannucci, said the hospital
launched a telemedicine platform for remote monitoring of dialysis patients
after losing its one nephrologist. Without telemedicine, patients would travel
to Phoenix or Flagstaff for treatment, often incurring $40,000 helicopter rides
to get the care they need.
“That is just life changing for people,” said Iannucci, who
estimated the hospital has saved about $3 million and seen the platform used by
about 400 patients in just one year. “I get to be in the comfort of my
own community, close to my family, and support system as well. That makes such
a difference for patients and their families.”
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