Doctors’ Licensing Restrictions Limit Access to Healthcare
The Current Situation
Doctors are generally allowed to practice medicine only where they have a license. This means they cannot treat patients across state lines unless they also have a license in the patient’s state, and most physicians have one or two licenses at most. This has led to what Ateev Mehrotra, a physician and professor of health policy at the Brown University School of Public Health, calls an “inane” norm. A woman with a rare cancer, for example, may need to travel long distances to see a specialist, or a baby with a rare disease may need to be shuttled between states for treatment.
Challenges for Telehealth
While eligible physicians can currently apply to practice in states besides their own, this can be a burdensome and impractical process. For instance, if an oncologist in Minnesota sees a patient from Kansas, the patient may want to do follow-up appointments via telehealth to avoid traveling back to Minnesota. However, the doctor would need to apply for a license in Kansas, which can be a lengthy and costly process.
Obstacles to Care
Doctors cannot reasonably be expected to apply for licensure in all 50 states. The patient may lose out on care or must shoulder the burden of traveling to the doctor’s office. The only way to access telehealth may be to cross into the state and log in, which may still be preferable to traveling to the doctor’s office. These obstacles to care have led to a growing belief among healthcare providers, policymakers, and patients that under certain circumstances, doctors should be able to treat their patients anywhere.
The Rise of Telehealth
Lately, telehealth has proven to be widely popular. The coronavirus emergency in 2020 served as proof of concept, demonstrating that new digital platforms for medicine were feasible and often highly effective. One study showed that telehealth accounted for nearly a quarter of contacts between patients and providers during the first four months of the pandemic (up from 0.3% during the same period in 2019).
The Future of Telehealth
Telehealth has gained a significant place in US medicine, increasing from 0.1% of total Medicare visits in 2019 to 5.3% in 2020 and 3.5% in 2021. By the end of 2023, more than one in 10 Medicare patients were still using telehealth. In some specialties, the rate is much higher: 37% of all mental-health visits, 10% of obstetric appointments, 10% of transplant appointments, and 11% of infectious-disease appointments.
Conclusion
Telehealth has broadened our ability to provide care in ways not imaginable prior to the pandemic, says Tara Sklar, faculty director of the health law and policy program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
FAQs
* What is the current situation with doctors’ licensing restrictions?
Doctors are generally allowed to practice medicine only where they have a license, and this can limit their ability to treat patients across state lines.
* What are the challenges for telehealth?
Eligible physicians can apply to practice in states besides their own, but this can be a burdensome and impractical process.
* What are the obstacles to care?
Doctors cannot reasonably be expected to apply for licensure in all 50 states, and patients may lose out on care or have to shoulder the burden of traveling to the doctor’s office.
* What is the future of telehealth?
Telehealth has gained a significant place in US medicine and is expected to continue to grow in popularity.
