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Practitioners of all healthcare professionals will be impacted by the upcoming end of the public health emergency (PHE). Behavioral health professionals stand out as the biggest winners, with more recent legislative action in their favor than any other professional group, particularly with regard to practicing telehealth and telemedicine across state lines. This article answers common questions and summarizes some of the key legal issues involved.
As the end of the PHE is less than six weeks away, Telehealth.org consulting clients and webinar participants have repeatedly asked several questions. They include the following:
- If my client has a residence in my state of licensure, is it still going to be ok for me to work with them after the end of the COVID public health emergency?
This issue with your client or patient’s residence is a red herring. Whether or not someone resides in your state of licensure doesn’t count if they are in another state at the time of your meeting. Healthcare licensing requirements follow the client or patient. When they go to another state, you must comply with all the laws of the state they have entered.1
Also, many providers were misinformed about practicing over state lines during the COVID pandemic’s public health emergency (PHE). It was not legal to practice telemedicine or telehealth over state lines during COVID without being registered where the client or patient was located at the time of contact.
Most states issued proper procedures to practice telehealth over state lines but lacked the resources to enforce existing laws if providers didn’t comply. Now that the pandemic’s PHE is coming to an end, we can expect more enforcement. Now is when…
