Study recommends Iowa break down barriers to telehealth
(The Center Square) – Iowa has opportunities for improvement in telehealth, according to a new report from the Reason Foundation.
While the COVID-19 pandemic hastened changes in care delivery, promoting telehealth, many states still need to make comprehensive updates to their telehealth laws, the report concludes. Most federal and state level emergency actions were only temporary.
For example, in June 2020, Iowa didn’t require health care providers for substance use disorder treatment to interact face-to-face with their patients, as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds wrote in her public health proclamation of disaster emergency.
“For many patients, cutting off remote access to care is the difference between them receiving care in this manner versus no care at all,” the report said.
The report said states can focus on four areas of innovation. They can ensure patients can access all forms of telehealth, launch a telehealth relationship by any mode, access virtual care from providers in other states and see many kinds of providers over telehealth.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients discovered and utilized a variety of telehealth options that offered flexible, affordable, and high-quality care, and those options shouldn’t be taken away,” Vittorio Nastasi, a Reason Foundation policy analyst and study co-author said in a statement. “States need to improve their laws so patients have as many quality care options as possible and the future health care system can become more patient-centric.”
While Iowa excels in independent practice and allowing patients to start telehealth by any mode, it has yet to provide modality neutrality. It also still has barriers to telehealth from out-of-state providers.
Lawmakers in a Health and Human Services appropriation bill in 2022 decided health carriers can’t exclude out-of-state health care professionals who provides services via telehealth for mental health conditions, illnesses, injuries or diseases – if the professional’s licensed in Iowa, able to deliver mental health services in compliance with the division and can satisfy the same criteria that health carriers use to qualify in-state professionals who hold the same license.
Still, Iowa needs to add a definition for remote patient monitoring and store-and-forward into state law, remove the interactive requirement and make it clear that a patient-provider relationship can start over any mode, the report said.
In remote patient monitoring, doctors can track a patient’s health data, such as vital signs and blood pressure, outside a facility. It can help prevent readmissions and allow older adults and individuals with disabilities to live at home instead of in a skilled nursing facility, according to the report.
Store-and-forward is the electronic transmission of digital medical information, like X-rays and MRIs. Specialists can then review the information, allowing patient prompt access to specialty care without requiring them to coordinate schedules and travel.
The state also needs to pass an easy registration or reciprocity law for all providers, the report said.
“Allowing across-state-line telehealth ends geographic and economic discrimination for many patients and allows access to providers who would not otherwise be accessible by distance or expense of travel,” the report said.
