Why New York Is Expanding Telehealth Services

April 14, 2021

You’re a patient in need of seeing a health care provider. Prior to the pandemic, you would trek to your doctor’s office or clinic, peruse back issues of a magazine in the waiting room and then see your doctor.

But today you’re doing a telehealth visit. So instead of the trip to the clinic or doctor’s office, you’ve fired up your Zoom app.

Telehealth may change the traditional arrangement for health care visits, even after the COVID-19 pandemic finally ends.

The pandemic has changed a lot in our lives and visits to your doctor may be among them. Mark Ustin, a regulatory attorney with the firm Farrell Fritz, said the efforts to strengthen telehealth services in the new state budget will expand access.

“During COVID we saw a number of the rules normally applicable to telehealth waived and that seems to have worked very well. So what the Legislature has done is, one, make those laws permanent, make those changes permanent, and also expand telehealth — remove current restrictions on where you can broadcast from and where you can receive,” he said in an interview. “That just improves access across the board.”

To view the full segment, please click here.