The recently-released Epstein Becker Green (EBG) survey on telemental health noted a long-awaited increase in the flexibility of telemental health laws by state authorities, including telehealth licensure laws by state. Increased access to telemental health combined with a 25% increase in anxiety and depression globally has led to a surge in funding for behavioral issues in the US. Mental healthcare services across the country have grown to serve the increasing number of citizens covered by expanded policies. The recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Fund of 2022 approved $1.5 trillion to broaden Medicare telehealth coverage.
Easing Telehealth Regulations by State Authorities
The EBG report highlights the broadening of telehealth laws in many states, including the efforts made by some states to make permanent the pandemic-related, temporary flexibilities to ease access and reimbursement. Changes to telehealth licensure law by state allowed healthcare workers to provide services across state lines if they held a license in good standing in their home state and completed the required paperwork in each new state of practice that will soon disappear.
At this point, many states have reduced requirements for remote prescriptions and increased coverage of Medicare or Medicaid for telehealth. While regulations traditionally authorized telehealth prescribers to write scripts for non-controlled substances without an in-person consultation, prescribing controlled substances has met with silence from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Updates have not yet been forthcoming for distance prescribing opioids or other controlled substances such as Adderall.
Telehealth Fraud in 2022
The EBG report also details how federal law enforcement has continued to uncover telehealth fraud over the year. Countrywide, thirty-six people have been charged in 13 states. The fraud-related crimes are valued at $1.2 billion, many related to telehealth fraud. Although most fraud does not involve telebehavioral health providers, the situation has gotten so dire that whistleblowers are now being