New bill in the Colorado legislature could make telemedicine more accessible. At present, federally qualified health centers, known as community health centers, aren’t paid for providing remote consultations to Medicaid patients.
Dr. Chris Tonozzi of Mountain Family Health Center in Glenwood Springs said that they get an annual grant from the federal government to support care for uninsured people. The other part of that is they get reimbursement from Medicaid that covers what they spend on those visits. What has been going on is that Colorado Medicaid hasn’t been willing to reimburse in their usual way for telemedicine, based on its cost to the center.
He also said that it’s a bit of a niche bill for them but, they are super happy. They feel like telemedicine, telehealth, is the wave of the future.
In Colorado, Medicaid covers the costs of face-to-face visits, but telehealth consultations by community health centers don’t qualify. Thus, a new bill was proposed in the Colorado Legislature.
This act would make a telemedicine service reimbursable at the same rate as an in-person, or so-called face-to-face visit. Tonozzi said that they would get reimbursed in the usual way thus, making telemedicine much more easy. Telemedicine consultations need to have video and audio, in a sense the services would still be face-to-face but, just through a screen.
“Telemedicine visits can lead to cost savings for the Medicaid systems by improving access to primary care. It would help to avoid unnecessary trips to emergency departments,” according to the proposed bill’s declaration. Tonozzi believes that telemedicine consultations are useful in chronic disease management.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Committee on Public Health Care & Human Services Feb. 5.