Arizona Lawmakers Consider Expanding Coverage For Telemedicine Statewide
Arizona lawmakers have a medical dilemma trying to provide medical care in the nation's fifth fastest growing state and a rapidly aging population.
Right now, private insurance policies only provide some patients remote access to doctors for a limited number of services.
A bill in the Arizona Legislature would expand coverage, requiring companies to insure telemedicine like it does for in-person coverage.
It also has research backing it from the University of Arizona's Center for Rural Health, which reports that Arizona currently covers about 42 percent of the primary care physicians needed statewide.
Rural areas are particularly vulnerable, especially as primary care physicians increasingly retire.
The telemedicine bill passed unanimously out of the Senate and waits for approval by the House.
