More than 60 lawmakers support WHA-backed telehealth bill

Dozens of lawmakers back a bill requiring Medicaid to treat telehealth the same as in-person services in terms of coverage and payment for providers.

The bill, backed by the Wisconsin Hospital Association, would also help Medicaid “catch up” to Medicare in how it covers telehealth, according to a memo sent by the legislative authors to other lawmakers asking for support.

There are now more than 50 telehealth services that Medicare covers and Medicaid doesn’t, they wrote.

The bill would also allow Medicaid patients to receive telehealth directly in their own homes or other non-clinical settings.

And it would scrap a required telehealth certification that providers see as a barrier to offering addiction treatment services.

“Telehealth is increasingly being utilized to improve access to essential care, but state laws are not keeping pace with advances in technology,” bill co-author Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton, said in a statement. “Medicaid recipients and providers are currently unable to leverage telehealth’s true potential and we want to change that.”

So far, a total of 16 senators and 46 representatives have signed on to the measure.

Eric Borgerding, WHA CEO, said that the association’s telehealth task force has worked for years to identify barriers healthcare providers face in expanding telehealth services. The legislation is modeled on the task force’s recommendations.

“This legislation will help hospitals and health systems meet patients where they are, increase access to high-quality specialty care in underserved rural and urban communities, and remove long-outdated regulations that have prevented WHA members from expanding behavioral health services through telehealth technology,” he said in a statement.

The Wisconsin Association of Health Plans said last week that it was reviewing the legislation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services said the agency doesn’t comment on pending legislation.

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