Senate Bill to Protect Access to Telehealth Advances

Denver, CO – Today, the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs approved SB20-212 Reimbursement For Telehealth Services, a bipartisan bill that seeks to protect Colorado patients’ access to telehealthcare.

Senate Bill 212 — sponsored by Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, and Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial — protects patients’ ability to receive care via telehealth that was granted during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Telehealth has kept consumers and providers safe while allowing patients to continue their care plan with their providers. This access could be removed when the declared emergency ends unless the state legislature acts.  

“Access to healthcare is one of the most fundamental rights that citizens should be afforded,” said Senator Faith Winter. “As our community recovers from this global health crisis, it is important that we continue to build upon the innovations utilized during these times to keep people safe. By further codifying telehealth services, we will be expanding the ease and access of vulnerable communities to the health care they desperately need. We need to use technology to our advantage as we work to make the world a more just and equitable place.”

Among other things, SB20- 212 requires that health insurance carriers, including Medicaid, cover telehealth visits for behavioral, mental, and physical health care, as long as they are delivered on a HIPAA-compliant platform. It also waives the requirement that patients have a pre-existing relationship with a provider in order to receive telehealth, and it bars insurers from imposing additional certification or licensure requirements on telehealth providers.

On March 20, Colorado’s Medicaid program expanded access to telemedicine in order to better serve its 1.2 million members. The new rule allowed community health centers, rural health clinics, and the Indian Health Services to bill for telemedicine visits. Additionally, home health and physical and occupational therapies via telehealth were included as covered services. The new rule is expected to expire on July 18. 

Specifically, SB-212:

• Allows telehealth for assessment, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, self-management, remote monitoring, and recommendations for a consumer. 

• Continues parity for in-person and telehealth billing.

• Includes behavioral, mental and physical health. 

• Requires the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF) to reimburse federally qualified health centers, rural health centers and the Indian Health Service for telemedicine services.

• Prohibits health insurance carriers from imposing specific limits on the technologies used for telehealth, as long as they are HIPAA-compliant. 

• Allows consumers to establish care with a provider via telehealth

The bill will now be heard by the Committee of the Whole.