Texas Governor Wants to Make Permanent Changes to Telemedicine Access
As part of his 2021 of the State address, Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, introduced his intention to permanently expand telemedicine services that were made available during the COVID-19 public health emergency (the “Pandemic”).
Specifically, on March 13, 2020, the Governor waived certain regulations and directed the Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”) to issue an emergency rule, all relating to telemedicine care for patients with state-regulated insurance plans to help doctors across Texas continue to treat their patients while mitigating the spread of COVID-19. The Governor also issued an emergency rule on September 25, 2020 (the “E.O.”), which mandated TDI to continue payment parity for telehealth services. The E.O. required that the TDI compensate health care providers for telemedicine visits at the same rate as an in-person visit, but equalized only applied to patients covered by state-regulated