A new Arizona law could permanently expand statewide use of virtual and telephonic doctors' visits, which became more commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The law, signed by Gov. Doug Ducey Wednesday, makes permanent telehealth flexibility that had been permitted under executive orders Ducey issued during Arizona's COVID-19 public health emergency.

The law takes effect immediately, officials with the governor's office said.

One key provision of that expanded flexibility was requiring health care insurance companies to expand telehealth coverage for all services that would normally be covered for an in-person visit.

"It catapults Arizona to the front of the line in terms of telehealth law nationally," said Dr. Ronald Weinstein, founding director of the University of Arizona's Arizona Telemedicine Program and a president emeritus of the American Telemedicine Association. "It's huge."

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“Telehealth expands access to medical services for low-income families and those living in rural areas, protects vulnerable populations, and allows snowbirds visiting our state to receive telemedicine from their home state," Ducey said in a written statement.

"Patients and medical professionals know what’s best for their needs, and we’re working to make sure they have access to those services."

The new telehealth law is what many are calling a positive change in Arizona medical care to come about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has broad bipartisan support.
 

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"[...] This Arizona reform builds upon this demonstrated success, supercharging healthcare access by using the power of technology and medical expertise in ways that have not yet been fully realized or, in some cases, yet unimagined.

The opportunities for transformation are all around us: Arizona’s reform revolutionizes:
 

- Rural care. Most states have exceptional care available in larger urban areas, with some drawing patients from around the world. But these same states almost always face shortages of providers in rural areas, making it difficult for their residents to access needed care without travel and the associated expenses. Too often, patients with limited access either delay care or forgo it altogether, causing further deterioration in one’s health. Arizona’s telehealth reform will make it easier for those patients to get needed care more often and in a timely manner.

- Hospitals. Most hospitals lack the ability to hire a multitude of specialists, but HB 2454 provides an important pathway for medical facilities to provide needed expertise and assistance without having to have it in-house. For example, should a patient in a rural area suffer a serious stroke, a community hospital may be able to, in real time, have the patient’s vital statistics shared and monitored with a leading specialist at another facility across the country, obtaining medical guidance that had been previously unavailable. In this way, hospitals can re-tool their services and offerings in a way that better allows financial flexibility and can better meet the needs of their patients.

- Insurer policies. While telehealth reimbursement policies have been dramatically expanded during COVID-19, many of the policies that limited coverage of these services are on track to revert to the pre-COVID status quo, absent federal and state policy and legislative reforms. Because the policies that govern the federal healthcare programs are often followed by private insurance policies, HB 2454 offers an opportunity to untether these coverage and payment decisions, encouraging new payment models that work better for families.

In the past, lawmakers in many states have imposed one-size-fits-all rules that prevent medical innovation and restrict the availability of healthcare services to patients in need — and those rules left Americans in a bind. But Arizona’s reform is a rejection of the business-as-usual approach to healthcare delivery and allows providers to put patients first.

Telehealth holds enormous potential for healthcare access, and while there are no magic bullets to healthcare reform, HB 2454 will help Arizona realize the potential of innovative, patient-centric medical care through the use of already-available technology and communication. This is exactly the kind of bold thinking and action that lawmakers across the country have the authority — and obligation — to embrace and pursue.