Insurers in one of the country's largest markets will now have to pay for telehealth, adding to the critical mass of reimbursement mandates and voluntary decisions for the service.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed the nation's most recent telehealth law, requiring private insurers to reimburse for the service, as they are in 21 other states.
The New York law mandates that insurers reimburse not only physicians, but also physician assistants, social workers, dentists and psychologists, as Managing Editor Erin McCann outlines on Healthcare IT News.
Other states where legislatures are pondering changes to telemedicine include Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, private insurers in states with and without telemedicine laws are entering the fray and crafting their own policies.
For 2015, New Jersey's Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield unveiled a new service called Horizon CareOnline, offering online video access to a physician 24 hours a day, seven days a week, being made available at no cost to the company's individual plan members through American Well.
Last year, Anthem Blue Cross expanded telemedicine benefits to 10 of the 14 states it operates in, via its own subsidiary, LiveHealth Online.
Another Blue insurer, Premera Blue Cross, is combining two main telehealth models, and giving members the option to have digital consults with their primary care physician, a childrens' pediatrician, or with a doctor they've never met online.