Tennessee Implementing Telehealth Reimbursement Parity Law

On April 14, 2014, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed Senate Bill 2050/House Bill 1895 into law, enacting telehealth parity legislation that requires private insurers and the state’s Medicaid managed care plans to cover telehealth services, and to reimburse on the same basis as in-person services. The legislation makes Tennessee the 21st state (plus the District of Columbia) in the country to enact a parity law for private insurance coverage of telehealth.

The new law (Public Chapter 675) takes effect on January 1, 2015; it applies to services delivered via video-conferencing and to store-and-forward telemedicine . . .