Governors Lead on Expanding Access to Affordable Broadband for Telehealth

Governors have championed the importance of increasing affordable broadband access and play a critical role in expanding access to services via telehealth, both in providing emergency connections during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and paving the way for enhanced and broader service in the years ahead. Many governors have enhanced health care services via telehealth by using a combination of the following strategies:

• Targeting telehealth with new and existing broadband grant programs and federal relief funds to deploy infrastructure—including leveraging state-operated broadband networks, expanding access to public wi-fi and deploying hotspot devices—along with efforts to more broadly increase affordability and improve digital literacy;

• Increasing the pool of providers who are permitted to practice telehealth (including qualified out-of-state providers);

• Reimbursing additional ways of delivering services via telehealth, including audio-only and asynchronous services;

• Enacting payment parity requirements so providers receive the same reimbursement whether the service is provided remotely or in person;

• Loosening restrictions on prescribing medications and/or treatment via telehealth; and

• Removing barriers that keep providers from being eligible to provide services via telehealth such as requiring that they establish care in person before allowing a telehealth visit.