The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) conducted an Interstate Telehealth Expansion Study in collaboration with stakeholders at the request of the Health and Government Operations Committee. The study focused on ways to expand interstate telehealth to provide more options for residents to receive services from out-of-state practitioners.  Increasing diffusion of interstate telehealth can be complex absent a federal framework for a license to practice nationally. Varying licensure rules across state health occupation boards and requirements around malpractice insurance and health insurance coverage were considered to develop recommendations that aim to inform a progressive framework for advancing interstate telehealth.

The report includes the landscape of interstate telehealth and supporting justification for nine recommendations and four notable considerations, of which five necessitate legislation, two regulation, and six policy.  Findings from the study are intended to guide State policymakers, health occupation boards, and other stakeholders in expanding interstate telehealth in ways that improve access to care and maintain continuity of care for Maryland residents.  Among the recommendations are:

• The General Assembly should continue adopting legislation to implement interstate compacts to improve consumer access to providers
• Health occupation boards should develop new pathways to licensure; continue to begin/renew conversations regarding the development of licensure by reciprocity and endorsement agreements
• The General Assembly should enact legislation to allow health occupation boards to adopt a limited use telehealth out-of-state license
• Health occupation boards should permit providers with an active unencumbered license in another state to deliver telehealth services to preserve continuity of care for existing patients