Many states have restored restrictions on telehealth use that they suspended earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report jointly prepared by the Reason Institute, the Pioneer Institute, and the Cicero Institute.
Among the most important restrictions that have been reinstated in some states are those barring requirements for insurers to cover telehealth and regulations that prohibit telehealth visits across state lines unless the physician is licensed in both states.
"Only three states — Arizona, Florida and Indiana — allow all healthcare providers to easily practice telehealth across state lines," says a news release on the think tanks' report. "Forty-seven others have arbitrary barriers in place that limit patients' access to specialists and available appointments based purely on residency."
"Once the [state-based] public health emergency declarations started to end or executive orders were withdrawn, many of the new flexibilities for providers, insurers, and patients were lost overnight," Vittorio Nastasi, a policy analyst at Reason Foundation and a co-author of the report, says in the news release. "States need to adopt a number of telehealth reforms to provide their residents better access to this safe and effective virtual care."
On a positive note, the report says, most states have removed the requirement that a patient must first see a provider in person before they can use telehealth services.
