By Erick Fountain
Marketing Support, Benefit Intelligence
Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill into law, HB 2454, on Wednesday expanding access to telehealth and making telemedicine services provided to Arizonans through the Governor’s Executive Order last March permanent. The bill passed with bipartisan support and effectively places Arizona at the national forefront of telemedicine. This law is a first-in-the-nation that allows registered healthcare providers across the country, who are in good standing in other states, to provide services to Arizonans via telehealth.
“Telehealth expands access to medical services for low-income families and those living in rural areas, protects vulnerable populations and allows snowbirds visiting our state to receive telemedicine from their home state,” Ducey said in a press release.
In the past, lawmakers in many states have imposed one-size-fits-all rules that prevent medical innovation and restrict the availability of healthcare services to patients in need — and those rules left Americans in a bind. But Arizona’s reform is a rejection of the business-as-usual approach to healthcare delivery and allows providers to put patients first.
Let’s take a look at what this new law covers:
- Gives Arizonans access to medical professionals across the country.
- Changes the word “telemedicine” in Arizona statutes to “telehealth,” a term more inclusive of non-physician providers and services.
- Allows asynchronous telehealth (as opposed to live, two-way, interactive sessions only) as an exam modality for establishing a provider-patient relationship and prescribing or dispensing prescription drugs and devices.
- Further expands the definition of telehealth to include audio-only telephone encounters to meet patient needs.
- Doesn’t specify telehealth technologies or uses but instead puts those judgments on the clinical providers.
- Adds to the current, very short, list of recognized telehealth providers so that any clinical provider would now be covered.
- Requires payment parity for telehealth—payment at the same rate for the same service, regardless of whether that service is provided in person or via telehealth.
- Sets up an advisory committee on telehealth best practices.
State Rep. Regina Cobb, who sponsored the bill that passed both the state House and Senate with bipartisan support, said telehealth was “an extremely valuable tool during the pandemic.”
“It’s helped Arizonans get in contact with health care providers, mental health specialists, speech therapists and more from the safety of their home.”
The law goes into effect immediately and covers three Executive Orders from 2020, so those orders have been rescinded.