Telehealth services; definitions, report.

Telehealth services. Defines "telehealthservices" as the delivery of health care services, including telemedicineservices and other medical, emergency medical, and behavioral health servicesthat are not equivalent to health care services provided through face-to-faceconsultation or contact between a health care provider and a patient, throughthe use of telecommunications and information technology that supports thedelivery of remote or long-distance health care services. The bill requires theBoard of Medical Assistance Services to include in the state plan for medicalassistance services a provision for coverage of telehealth services. The billalso requires (i) requires the Board of Health to develop and maintain anEmergency Telehealth Plan as a component of the Statewide Emergency MedicalServices Plan, (ii) every insurer proposing to issue individual or groupaccident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical andsurgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis; (iii) eachcorporation providing individual or group accident and sickness subscriptioncontracts; and (iv) each health maintenance organization providing a healthcare plan for health care services to provide coverage for the cost of suchhealth care services provided through telehealth services.  The bill also requires the Secretary of Health and HumanResources to establish a workgroup to develop recommendations for innovative payment models that support the use of telehealth services andtelemedicine services in accordance with the Statewide Emergency TelehealthPlan including payment of the cost of transporting of a patient to adestination providing services appropriate to the patient’s level of acuity andin-place treatment of a patient at the scene of an emergency response or vialtelehealth services or telemedicine services where appropriate, and appropriateliability protections for health care providers providing services throughtelehealth services and telemedicine services. The workgroup shall report itsrecommendations to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committees onAppropriations and Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committeeson Education and Health and Finance by November 1, 2020.