Arizona governor signs bill to expand telehealth services

Name: Gov. Ducey signs bill that aims to expand telehealth services
Uploaded: 2021-05-07T17:49:32-07:00
Description: Telemedicine may be here to stay in Arizona, even long after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Recently, Governor Doug Ducey has signed a bill that expands telehealth services across the state.

Gov. Ducey signs bill that aims to expand telehealth services

Telemedicine may be here to stay in Arizona, even long after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Recently, Governor Doug Ducey has signed a bill that expands telehealth services across the state.

PHOENIX - Over the past year, you might have seen your doctor through a screen on your computer or phone. It took a pandemic to make the service widely available, but now it's here to stay.

Kalinda Stephenson had to be careful to try and avoid COVID-19. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she had to keep up with her doctor, too. Telehealth helped make that happen.

Now, it's here to stay. Patients will have the option for telehealth if their provider offers it. Specialists in other states will also be able to provide the service.

"We had been dabbling in this, but overnight, it changed. They said you can Skype, you can Face Time, you just can't use Tik Tok, that's about it," said Dr. Anthony Dunnigan with ValleyWise Health. "Like many systems last year, we spun up telehealth quickly, overnight in our case. We went from zero to 200,000 in a year. So the legislation the governor signed really bakes this in now.

Read the bill - HB 2454: telehealth; health care providers; requirements