Michigan Governor Signs New Telehealth Coverage Guidelines Into Law
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed into a law a package of bills that will give providers more Medicaid coverage for telehealth and allow them to use remote patient monitoring and asynchronous platforms more freely.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed into law a handful of bills aimed at expanding telehealth in the state, giving providers more Medicaid coverage and the leeway to use remote patient monitoring and asynchronous platforms.
The package of five bills was introduced in January in the House and passed in May, with the Senate voting its approval in June. On May 14, Whitmer signed an executive order expanding telehealth coverage to deal with the COVID-19 emergency.
House Bills 5412-5416 “will increase access to healthcare in Michigan by ensuring that telemedicine and remote patient monitoring services will be covered by insurers and by Medicaid,” Whitmer said in a press release. “These bills codify significant pieces of Executive Order 2020-86, which broadly expanded access to telemedicine as part of Michigan’s emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the virtues of telemedicine are not unique to this moment, so Michiganders will benefit from reduced costs, increased accessibility, and lower transmission rates of infectious diseases at the doctor’s office for years to come.”
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.