HB 1332

Abstract

Statewide Telehealth Plan. Directs the Board of Health to develop and implement, by January 1, 2021, and thereafter maintain as a component of the State Health Plan a Statewide Telehealth Plan (the Plan) to promote an integrated approach to the introduction and use of telehealth services and telemedicine services, as those terms are defined in the bill. The bill requires the Plan to include, among other provisions, provisions for (i) the use of remote patient monitoring services and store-and-forward technologies, including in cases involving patients with chronic illness; (ii) the promotion of the inclusion of telehealth services in hospitals, schools, and state agencies; and (iii) a strategy for the collection of data regarding the use of telehealth services.

Telehealth services. Directs the Board of Health to develop and implement, by July 1, 2022, and thereafter maintain as a component of the State Health Plan a Statewide Telehealth Plan to promote an integrated approach to the introduction and use of telehealth services and telemedicine services,, as those terms are defined in the bill. The bill requires the Statewide Telehealth Plan to promote (i) the use of remote patient monitoring services and store-and-forward technologies, including in cases involving patients with chronic illness; (ii) the leveraging of telehealth and telemedicine technologies to streamline general practice and nonemergency triage services; (iii) rapid patient access to emergency medicine providers through telehealth services and telemedicine services; and (iv) such other telehealth services and telemedicine services and technologies as the Board of Health deems appropriate. The bill also requires the Board of Medical Assistance Services to amend the state plan for medical assistance to include a provision for payment of medical assistance for (a) emergency medical services delivered through telehealth services or telemedicine services provided pursuant to the Statewide Telehealth Plan, in the home of the person to whom services are provided, in any public or private primary or secondary school or postsecondary institution of higher education at which the person to whom services are provided is located, and at the location where the patient received prehospital, interhospital, or emergency medical services in conjunction with appropriate emergency medical, medical, or long-term care providers included as originating sites for such telehealth services or telemedicine services and (b) medically necessary health care services provided through remote patient monitoring services for priority populations as determined by the Director of Medical Assistance Services, with the home as an eligible originating site, as permitted by state law.

Telehealth services. Defines "telehealthservices" as the delivery of health care services, including telemedicineservices and other medical, emergency medical, and behavioral health servicesthat are not equivalent to health care services provided through face-to-faceconsultation or contact between a health care provider and a patient, throughthe use of telecommunications and information technology that supports thedelivery of remote or long-distance health care services. The bill requires theBoard of Medical Assistance Services to include in the state plan for medicalassistance services a provision for coverage of telehealth services. The billalso requires (i) requires the Board of Health to develop and maintain anEmergency Telehealth Plan as a component of the Statewide Emergency MedicalServices Plan, (ii) every insurer proposing to issue individual or groupaccident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical andsurgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis; (iii) eachcorporation providing individual or group accident and sickness subscriptioncontracts; and (iv) each health maintenance organization providing a healthcare plan for health care services to provide coverage for the cost of suchhealth care services provided through telehealth services.  The bill also requires the Secretary of Health and HumanResources to establish a workgroup to develop recommendations for innovative payment models that support the use of telehealth services andtelemedicine services in accordance with the Statewide Emergency TelehealthPlan including payment of the cost of transporting of a patient to adestination providing services appropriate to the patient’s level of acuity andin-place treatment of a patient at the scene of an emergency response or vialtelehealth services or telemedicine services where appropriate, and appropriateliability protections for health care providers providing services throughtelehealth services and telemedicine services. The workgroup shall report itsrecommendations to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committees onAppropriations and Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committeeson Education and Health and Finance by November 1, 2020.