Achieving Telehealth’s Potential: The Federal Policy Landscape for Interstate Telehealth Practices
Online viewing
Watch the fully captioned event recording.
Event Description
Telehealth has been an invaluable tool for preserving health care access during the pandemic. Early in the pandemic, policymakers on the federal and state level moved with remarkable speed and implemented a series of temporary changes to promote telehealth, including expanding reimbursement and modifying licensure requirements. In response, telemedicine use skyrocketed, and both providers and patients have expressed a strong preference to maintain telemedicine as a staple of healthcare delivery. However, most of these temporary regulatory changes will be rolled back after the public health emergency expires. This has prompted an ongoing debate at both the state and federal level on which of these changes should be permanent.
Physician licensure is a particular focus of debate. Prior to the pandemic, most states required a physician to be licensed in the state in which the patient is located, and reinstating this standard—which was among those relaxed during the COVID-19 crisis—will be a major deterrent to interstate telehealth use. Patients will have to drive across state lines to have virtual consults with specialized experts, and providers will be dissuaded from developing truly national telehealth practices.
This event, the second of three in a series, maped out the current and potential federal initiatives to facilitate interstate telehealth practices.
Panelists
- Welcome and moderator: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
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Leda Anderson, Director, Advocacy & Government Relations, Advocacy, Government & Community Relations, Massachusetts Medical Society
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Krista Drobac, Executive Director, Alliance for Connected Care and Partner, Sirona Strategies
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Leonie Heyworth, Deputy Director for Clinical Services, Telehealth Services, Office of Connected Care, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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Craig Lipset, CoChair, Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance and Adjunct Asst Professor of Health Informatics, Rutgers University
This event is sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Supported by The Commonwealth Fund, a national, private foundation based in New York City that supports independent research on health care issues and makes grants to improve health care practice and policy. The views presented here are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Commonwealth Fund, its directors, officers, or staff