Utah Rep. John Curtis recently introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill to study telemedicine’s impact during the coronavirus pandemic. This bill is an important start to making telemedicine a national reality for rural and elderly patients whose health care is limited by social distancing and lockdown requirements.
But Utah can’t afford to wait for Congress to act. Gov. Gary Herbert’s emergency executive order in March has already proven the power of telemedicine for Utah families, the elderly and rural residents. Herbert and state lawmakers should immediately enact legislation making the emergency, temporary measures permanent and expand telehealth deregulation to Medicaid so that our state’s laws can catch up to medical technology.
For families, the executive order helps them receive medical care while staying socially distanced and avoiding the logistical challenges during times of lockdown. At-risk elderly people can avoid crowded hospitals and doctors’ offices. And it keeps doctors available to serve Utahns’ routine and emergency medical needs, including rural patients who had difficulty finding quality physicians even before the pandemic.
As valuable as these emergency measures are, they’re set to expire once the pandemic subsides. There’s no good reason why they should. And there are many good reasons that lawmakers should continue finding ways to improve the patient-doctor relationship while decreasing unnecessary government interference.
For example, Utah’s health care providers are not allowed to remotely prescribe medication without wading through a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy. Doctors both in- and out-of-state should be free to provide the full range of telehealth services to Utah’s patients, including through making the emergency removal of in-state telehealth licensing permanent.
Nearly 200 leading physicians recently wrote congressional leadership to endorse telemedicine and digital health.
Dr. David Adams, cardiac surgeon-in-chief at Mount Sinai Health Systems notes, “One of the big lessons this pandemic has taught us is the power of telemedicine to safely deliver quality care to millions of patients. In a sense, it is restoring our ability to provide house calls and democratizing access to medical expertise, no matter where a patient lives.”
By making Herbert’s telehealth order permanent, Utah will remain at the forefront of this health revolution.
Other restrictions disproportionately affect the poor who use Medicaid. Disabled patients frequently use remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies to stay in touch with their doctors. This allows doctors to monitor their condition and give potentially life-saving assistance in real-time without violating social distancing rules and guidelines. Many health problems require this kind of monitoring, but Medicaid only covers RPM for a handful of conditions. Similarly, store-and-forward services, which allow patients to send medical data to doctors for consultation or forwarding to a specialist, aren’t covered by Medicaid.
These restrictions are anywhere from unfairly restrictive for poor Utahns to potentially life-threatening. Their elimination should be prioritized by state regulators and lawmakers, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
There is already some precedent for such partnerships. Herbert’s executive order to allow digital patient-doctor communication follows federal HIPAA laws by balancing privacy and ease of use. Doctors can use non-regulation communication methods, but only with the patient’s consent. This should be a permanently available choice for patients.
From Rep. Curtis to Gov. Herbert, our state’s leaders are making Utah a leader in keeping patients and doctors connected during unprecedented times. As Curtis pushes Congress to act, state lawmakers should work with Herbert to pass legislation that permanently removes these unnecessary telehealth barriers to access.
Dr. Mary Tipton
Mary Tipton, M.D., is an internal medicine and pediatric specialist in South Jordan.
