Michigan Lawmakers Look to Expand RPM, Store-and-Forward Telehealth

Michigan lawmakers are moving forward with a series of bills aimed at expanding telehealth in the state, including mandating Medicaid coverage for services delivered to the home and school and more leeway for the use of remote patient monitoring and store-and-forward services.

The five-bill package was passed unanimously last week by the state’s House of Representatives and now heads to the Senate. While aimed at boosting connected health adoption to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, they aren’t emergency measures and will remain in place after the crisis.

HB 5412 and HB 5413 would amend the state’s Insurance Code and Nonprofit Health Care Corporation Reform Act, respectively, to include “store and forward online messaging” as a telemedicine service, removing the requirement that such services be delivered in real time. HB 5414 adds that amendment to the state’s Mental Health Code.

HB 5415 and HB 5416 take aim at the state’s Social Welfare Act. The former adds remote patient monitoring services, defined as “digital technology to collect medical and other forms of health data from an individual in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to a health care provider in a different location for assessment and recommendations,” to the Health and Human Services Department’s medical assistance and Healthy Michigan programs. The latter includes in-home and in-school setting as originating sites for telehealth, beginning in October.

Legislators who sponsored the package say the bills would enable residents to collect their health data at home – through connected devices or even a video – and send that information through an online portal to their doctor, who would then analyze the data and make a diagnosis.

“This innovative solution to health care access is invaluable to rural communities like ours, especially as COVID-19 regulations prevent many people from receiving the routine and preventative health care they need,” State Rep. Mary Whiteford said in a press release. “I am proud to have the support of the medical community behind this legislation and I hope to see it sail through the process so we can get people appointments with their doctors from home.”

A legislative analysis of the five bills indicated they would “have an indeterminate fiscal impact but likely increase Medicaid-related expenditures a minimal amount from increased access to and utilization of telemedicine.”