WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, questioned witnesses regarding the importance of telehealth, highlighting how difficult it can be for medical professionals to acquire the credentials needed to practice telemedicine across state lines. Blunt noted that students are among those who would significantly benefit from allowing health care providers to render services regardless of where they live.
Blunt, along with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (Conn.), this year reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to allow any health care professional in good standing with a valid practitioners’ license to render services – including telehealth – anywhere for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brendan Carr, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, voiced his support for Blunt’s TREAT Act, noting that it is “a great step in the right direction” toward addressing some of the regulatory challenges preventing patients from utilizing telehealth services.
Following are the witnesses Blunt questioned:
- Brendan Carr, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
- Deanna Larson, President, Avel eCARE
CLICK HERE to Watch Blunt’s Remarks
Following is a Transcript:
BLUNT: Thank you, Chairman. On the topic of how we deliver—Commissioner Carr, you said in your testimony that while the benefits of telehealth are clear, barriers remain from legal and regulatory to connectivity challenges. We seem to be moving as quickly as we are able to, though seems slower to most of us than it should be for connectivity. But on the other authorities, I’m concerned we’re not moving as quickly as we need. Senator Murphy and I, along with in the House, Representative[s] Latta and Dingell, introduced a bill, the TREAT Act, to try to deal with some of the regulatory challenges. You know, Missouri’s—we have seven states that touch our state. Our two biggest population centers are right on the edge of the state. Lots of people drive from other states to come to Missouri for health care. But when it’s telemedicine and they’re dealing with a doctor they’ve always dealt with, they’re in a state where that doctor may have some challenges because of the barriers to becoming licensed in that state. Do you, anybody on the panel starting with Commissioner Carr, have any thoughts on that problem and the importance of solving it?
CARR: Well, thank you, Senator. I think the TREAT Act is a great step in the right direction. It eliminates some of those geographic restrictions that are unnecessary in a telehealth world. Speaking of Missouri, though, I also want to say that, you know, one of the challenges on the connectivity side is workforce and making sure we have the telecom crews capable of building this out. And I just did a visit to Linn, Missouri. They’ve got State Tech there which is a wonderful program, training up young people to get good-paying jobs, building out this infrastructure. And as a country, any infrastructure plan that doesn’t include a plan for the workforce shortage that we have is itself falling short. I think that type of a program in Linn, Missouri, is a great model we need to continue to build on.
BLUNT: Right. Well, I agree with that. But, in fact, in our state, the University of Missouri has had extension opportunities. Normally, early on very much ag-focused, but later that focus expanded in every single county. And one of the things they’re doing right now is trying to be sure that there’s at least one location in every county that someone could go to for a telemedicine opportunity. Often your behavioral health provider is further away than your other health provider. And you know, that’s something you don’t want to let get away. But if anybody has any thoughts on the challenges of last year. We saw kids in college in a different situation than they had been before. Maybe these were people that had had behavioral health people that they’d relied on at home, but suddenly they’re five states away. How important is it that we figure out how to deal with that problem? Ms. Larson?
LARSON: You know, I would speak to licensing as really a barrier. As you talk about these specialists, they can provide—there’s always a place that is needing them. And you know, if there’s a lot of barrier to getting not only licensed in the state and the time that that takes, some states still require them or want them to come into the state and be fingerprinted. You know, the duplication of that for an individual, a physician who is very busy to get all of that done across several state lines is difficult. Not to mention, typically, at least the way we provide telemedicine, we do the credentialing or appointment, if you will, with whoever the local providers are. That means that medical staff through the conditions of participation are required to have medical staff appointment criteria. Each of them are different. I have emergency physicians who are appointed in 200 locations across the US. 200 different sets of bylaws that they have to be accountable to achieve and accomplish and keep up in 200 different facilities. That’s just the governance at the local site that’s required by the conditions of participation.
BLUNT: Well, I think I’m running out of time here. I think this is something we have to deal with. And I’m in a Zoom meeting this week with the group the American Connection Project, 170 different members, big companies, and others. The TREAT Act is the first piece of legislation they’ve ever endorsed, and so they endorsed it this week. And I hope we can deal with that because if we have telemedicine, we’re going to have to have connection to the doctors and other health care professionals that you want to be connected with and that you often are connected with when you get in your car and drive. But all of our—every state has somewhere in state that someone from another state drives to see their doctor now, and we need to figure out how they can have that telemedicine visit as well. I think you can make considerations as the TREAT Act does for state regulators to still have authority if things are not going the way they should, but some sort of understood reciprocity or something is really important here. Thank you, Chairman.