Page 14 Unlocking The Potential of Physician to Patient Telehealth Services The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Figure 4: States requiring telehealth reimbursement for private insurers

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The only nationally consistent policy for telehealth reimbursement is from Medicare.
Unfortunately Medicare’s reimbursement policy mostly requires patients to be located in
rural areas and be at a clinic when they receive the service. Not only does this defeat the
benefit of allowing patients to receive care from the most convenient location, such as their
home or place of work, it also prevents millions of individuals living in urban areas from
accessing affordable telehealth services.

Interoperability
Investments in health information technology, especially electronic health record systems,
have created the necessary technological infrastructure for telehealth services. Telehealth
services depend, in part, on the ability of physicians to access the electronic health records
of their patients and share these records with other health care providers. While the United
States has made significant strides in the deployment of electronic health records over the
past five years, more progress is needed to fully realize a nationwide, interoperable system.
Today approximately 78 percent of office-based physicians use an electronic health record
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system. These systems allow physicians to electronically record patient medical
information, store lab test data, document clinical encounters, and create prescriptions.
Unfortunately, not all electronic health record systems are interoperable and many patients
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do not have access to their data. These interoperability problems will need to be resolved
so that telehealth providers can store and access patient health information. The Office of
the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology should continue to use
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incentives for interoperability to spur progress towards this goal.

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION | MAY 2014 PAGE 14