South Dakota Governor Permanently Extends Telehealth Coverage

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has signed into law a bill that allows healthcare providers to treat patients via telehealth without first needing an in-person exam.

SB 96, which includes some emergency measures included in executive orders 2020-07 and 2020-16, is the first of what may be several attempts to permanently extend connected health access and coverage beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID-19 challenged us in new, unforeseen ways, and those challenges provided us an opportunity to adapt and find innovative ways to deliver healthcare in South Dakota,” Noem said in a press release. “We greatly expanded telehealth in 2020. Going forward, we will build on these technological advancements and continue to find ways to remove government red tape in healthcare.”

In January, Noem announced that she would introduce at least two bills aimed at extending telehealth in the state. Along with eliminating the in-person requirement for telehealth treatment, she also wants to allow providers to prescribe medications via telehealth, permit the use of audio-only telehealth platforms (such as phones) and allow the state to recognize medical licenses from states included in the Uniform Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a mutual aid agreement that allows states to share resources during natural and man-made emergencies.

SB 96 also revises the state’s definition of telehealth to cover “interactive audio-video, interactive audio with store and forward, store-and-forward technology, and remote patient monitoring.”