A bill requiring health insurers to pay for virtual health visits at the same rate as in-person visits for the next two years was passed by the state Senate Thursday and awaits the governor’s signature, even as health insurers registered their strong opposition.
The measure extends the pay parity provisions for virtual care, known as telehealth, that were adopted on an emergency basis at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pay parity would be extended under the law until June 2023.
Insurers have objected to the measure as bypassing traditional negotiations with the industry on actions that could impact their operations and increase costs.
“Extending the current telehealth law in perpetuity only exacerbates the affordability concerns relative to increasing insurance premiums,” said the Connecticut Association of Health Plans filed in testimony in opposition to the bill. “Telehealth has filled a critical void in the medical delivery system this past year but we need to proceed with caution.”
Telehealth’s ease of use could increase the number of doctor visits and boost costs, insurers argue, costing taxpayer dollars through the state employee plan, Medicaid and insurance exchange. The insurers also say that increased telehealth adoption could result in the closing of physical provider locations and act as a “disincentive to adoption of value-based payment
arrangements.”
Doctors groups — including the Connecticut State Medical Society and associations representing urologists, dermatologists and eye physicians — support the bill’s central provision on pay parity for telehealth and in-person services. But the groups asked that the bill remove a provision requiring that doctors determine specifics of patients’ health insurance coverage relating to telehealth.
“Without the removal of this language, very few physicians would actually be able to provide telehealth services under the limitations presented by the revised statute,” said a statement from the groups posted as part of public hearing testimony.
