Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Those long waits in a doctor’s office may soon be a distant memory.
The House select committee on affordable healthcare access signed off on a proposed committee bill Wednesday that allows health care professionals to use telehealth to provide health care services.
The committee voted 14-0 to introduce the measure as a committee bill. Among other things, it authorizes licensed health care professionals to use telehealth to deliver health care services within their scope of capacity and gives out-of-state health care professionals the opportunity to deliver services if they register with the Department of Health, meet eligibility requirements and pay a fee.
Rep. Chris Sprowls said the bill also “encourages efficiency in the health care system” to determine whether there should be an in-person visit.
“I think this bill gets us to the place we’ve talked about of creating an additional avenue of access so that, particularly people in rural communities can have an additional avenue of going and receiving care from a world class doctor,” he told the committee. “That’s an opportunity that will be available to them.”
Jonathan Kilman, a lobbyist representing the Telehealth Association of Florida, said while the organization wasn’t in a position to immediately comment on the entirety of the bill, there are parts of the legislation “that would encourage a more robust marketplace, such as the collection of data to clarify the current state of the Telehealth market here.”
“The Telehealth Association of Florida was created to provide a cohesive voice for the many organizations seeking to put Florida at the forefront of innovative healthcare solutions,” he said in an email. “We look forward to being a part of the conversation as it evolves here, because we firmly believe Telehealth is a critical component to the future of healthcare.”
