Bills · 2019-2020 Regular Session
Relating to: coverage of telehealth services.
Health services department of — Health Insurance — Health Insurance — Miscellaneous Medical assistance Public employee — Group insurance Telecommunications Telephone
- Introduced, stopped here
- Passes Senate, not reached
- Passes Assembly, not reached
- Governor signs, not reached
- Law, not reached
Unfamiliar terms? Glossary
What this bill does
Plain-language analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau
The bill prohibits a private insurer or a self-insured health plan of the state or
a county, city, village, town, or school district from denying coverage or refusing to
reimburse a health care provider for a treatment or service provided before May 1,
2021, through telehealth, which includes audio-only telephone, if that treatment or
service is covered under the policy or plan when provided in person by a health care
provider. Telehealth is a practice of health care delivery, diagnosis, consultation,
treatment, or transfer of medically relevant data by means of audio, video, or data
communications that are used either during a patient visit or a consultation or are
used to transfer medically relevant data about a patient.
2019 Wisconsin Act 56
requires the coverage by and reimburse for certain
telehealth services under the Medical Assistance program. Act 56 excluded from the
definition of telehealth audio-only telephone communications unless the
Department of Health Services specified by rule that those communications are
considered telehealth reimburseable by the Medical Assistance program. The bill
specifies that DHS must consider mental health therapy conducted before May 1,
2021, over audio-only telephone communications as interactive telehealth that is
eligible for coverage and reimbursement under the Medical Assistance program.