State by state, some patients are losing telehealth access to doctors
Many states are making it difficult for people to have virtual visits with doctors in other states, partly reversing the explosion in telehealth that occurred
Many states are making it difficult for people to have virtual visits with doctors in other states, partly reversing the explosion in telehealth that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic and calling into question the durability of one of the major technological shifts from the past two years.
The rollback in telehealth access has been happening gradually and quietly over the past few months as pandemic-era emergency health orders have lapsed in one state after another, reimposing some of the old rules about when doctors can practice in multiple states.
At Johns Hopkins Medicine, some patients and their families now have to switch doctors or drive hours to different states when previously video calls from their homes would have been allowed under the looser regulations, said Dr. Brian Hasselfeld, the health system’s medical director for digital health and telemedicine.
The major barrier is licensing: a requirement rooted in the 19th century that a doctor must have a license from the state where a patient is located, even if the doctor is licensed elsewhere.
“Most states now are back to the pre-pandemic licensure rules, where you must be licensed in our state if you’re going to see patients in our state,” Hasselfeld said.
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