Grades Matter: State-by-State telemedicine performances and what they mean

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In the days of schooling that we all loved and miss dearly, report cards were used to denote “good” and “poor” students. Similarly, within the realm of U.S. telemedicine, standards to separate a “good” state for telemedicine and a “not-so-good” one have been put into motion. Earlier this month at its annual conference, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) released two key reports: a state-by-state analysis of coverage and reimbursement policies for telemedicine services and a second on physician practice standards and licensure in each state.

So who made the grade? In terms of coverage and reimbursement, five states (six including the District of Columbia) received an A based on 13 criteria. New Mexico, one of the lucky “A” states, received its grade for a few key reasons worth sharing:

• New Mexico has distinguished telehealth parity for private insurance, Medicaid and its state employee health plans.
• New Mexico is one of just five states to specify that its Medicaid program must cover telemedicine services provided by substance-abuse or addiction specialists.
• New Mexico Medicaid also covers telemental health delivered by licensed clinical social workers and counselors (as do several others). However, only New Mexico, Oklahoma and Washington do so for behavioral analysts. This trend, according to the ATA, “is unique because these specialists are critical for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.”

And then there were those who didn’t make the class. The only two states to earn failing grades on coverage policies are small New England neighbors, Connecticut and Rhode Island. These two states each failed the three major categories–parity for private insurance, Medicaid and state employee health plans–mainly due to their lack of Medicaid telemedicine coverage (according to the ATA). Both Connecticut and Rhode Island allow telemedicine services without a telepresenter or other healthcare professional present with the patient and neither got extra points for innovative service-delivery models.

Catch up on your telemedicine news and see how all 50 states fared here with the ATA’s official telemedicine report card!

SOURCE: MedCity News

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