Last year, a powerful telehealth explosion was seen. Waiving various restrictions on virtual care was the best decision of last year. The further of those regulations remain murky, and with that, the continued widespread availability of telehealth can be seen. Heather Alleva, the leading health systems and hospitals attorney at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, said in an interview, “It’s unclear when those waivers will go away, and it’s unclear what will be permanent and what won’t be.”
Alleva says that some form of state-specific licensure will almost certainly be reinstated. She explains, “There’s a concern that they want to make sure consumers and patients in their state are being served by people they’ve vetted.” Providers in places like Chicago or Detroit may have patients who live over the state lines. They will face difficulty.
Suppose you have a licensed physician in Illinois and provide care to a patient in Florida via telehealth. Then, both the physician and their employers can be sued for giving unlicensed care. Alleva provides a few options for those providers who wish to make it broadly available in the future.
Alleva suggests that the providers be proactive. She says that they can also monitor what their state is doing and thinking. Providers can also make sure that they get licensure in the other states as well.
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