On August 5, 2016, the Pennsylvania Senate introduced telemedicine legislation (SB 1342) to establish standards concerning the use of telemedicine. The bill defines "telemedicine" as "the delivery of health care services provided through telecommunications technology to a patient by a healthcare practitioner who is at a different location." Telemedicine would include remote patient monitoring but excludes "the use of audio-only telephone conversation, facsimile, e-mail, instant messaging, phone text, answers to an online questionnaire or any combination thereof." If passed, the bill would also require insurers to adopt payment parity for services provided through telemedicine. The bill has been referred to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee for review.
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