EDITORIAL: Once illegal, telemedicine takes off during crisis

One of the most valuable revelations of the coronavirus crisis has been how the public health bureaucracy can hinder and discourage innovation when it’s most necessary. From erecting testing roadblocks to imposing licensing impediments that create shortages of hospital beds and medical personnel, the administrative state has proven, at times, an obstacle to the rapid and comprehensive response necessary to successfully attack the virus.

Several jurisdictions have recognized this issue and relaxed regulations that, for example, prohibit state licensing reciprocity, thus limiting the pool of health care providers. Other developments include the current explosion in telemedicine, a practice that was illegal in many states until recently.

“Within the last month or so, more Las Vegas Valley medical offices have started offering telemedicine appointments in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” the Review-Journal’s Julie Wootton-Greener reported over the weekend, “part of a nationwide trend that has seen an explosion in use of the technology.”

The shift is advantageous in many ways. For those needing medical care but nervous about venturing outside due to the coronavirus, telemedicine offers a viable and sometimes cheaper alternative. It can also help control potential shortages of hospital resources by giving patients options beyond the hospital emergency room, while also providing more choices for residents of rural Nevada and other sparsely populated areas where access to doctors can be problematic.

For decades, however, many state licensing boards rejected telemedicine as insufficient and a threat to existing practitioners. That has changed in the past few years — and the virus crisis is accelerating the transition.

“Although laws in many states inhibited the growth of telehealth services in the past,” the website healthcaredive noted in December, “many state governments now are passing laws encouraging the adoption of virtual services. That’s a ‘sea change compared to a decade ago,’ according to” a report from a law firm that has studied the issue.

But barriers remain. For instance, Nevada is one of only nine states that require physicians to obtain a special telemedicine license. Many states limit resident access to out-of-state health care professionals.

There are obvious limitations to the practice, most notably the lack of a physical examination. But overall, telemedicine is proving to be an effective means of improving access to basic health care. That has become even more vital given the pandemic that has upended life as we know it.

When the coronavirus crisis subsides, state policymakers should re-examine regulations — like those that once prohibited telemedicine — that make it more difficult for health care professionals to do their jobs and for patients to receive care.