CT-N images
Guilford-Branford State Rep. Sean Scanlon speaking on House floor.
Remote access to healthcare during the pandemic got a boost from the state House of Representatives, as a bill requiring insurers to cover telehealth at the same rate as in-person services for the next half-year sailed through the lower chamber with a unanimous vote.
State representatives took that vote Thursday afternoon during the first official day of this summer’s special session of the Connecticut General Assembly.
They voted 145 – 0 in support of House Bill 6001: An Act Concerning Telehealth. Six legislators abstained from the vote.
A large empty chamber during the overwhelmingly virtually attended session.
The state House of Representatives is also slated to vote Thursday on proposed bills regarding police accountability, absentee ballots, and insulin price caps.
Guilford-Branford Democrat State Rep. Sean Scanlon, who is also the House chair of the state legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, pitched his colleagues on the bill that would require “rate-payer parity” through March 15, 2021 for medical services delivered by a healthcare provider to a patient via a video connection or, for in-network providers, via an audio connection only.
Scanlon helped oversee a public virtual listening session on the item on Tuesday.
“Today we’re here to do a simple thing, which is to maintain access and affordability for this very vital service until next year,” he said.
He said the proposed bill, which can be read here, applies to fully insured health plans, state health plans, and the state HUSKY health program.
The proposed bill would also allow a pharmacy to transfer an unfilled prescription to another pharmacy. Scanlon argued that that provision would “make it easier for people to access the drugs they need during this pandemic.”
Republican State Rep. Cara Pavalock‑D’Amato of Bristol asked Scanlon to elaborate on the definition of “parity” as it pertains to this bill.
“Parity is about all things being equal,” Scanlon said. For this bill, “we’re talking about ratepayer parity.”
Prior to Gov. Ned Lamont implementing a similar, currently-enacted executive order, and prior to the legislature taking a vote codifying this proposed bill, “a provider is not able to get reimbursed for telehealth in the same way that an in-person visit would,” he said. This bill would create parity between in-person and telehealth, so that providers are compensated at the same rate — at least, through March 15.
Why only March 15? asked Hartford Democratic State Rep. Brandon McGee (pictured).
“There are basically no indications that we would be out of social distancing by March,” he said.
“The idea behind March was to get us into the next session,” Scanlon replied. “None of us know what is going to happen between now and then,” he admitted. He said that, hopefully, if the pandemic still poses enough of a threat to public health next March as it does now, then the legislature will be able deliberate and vote on an extension or expansion of this bill during its regular 2021 session.
“We settled on March as a date sort of in the middle of the session,” he said. That gives the legislature time to figure out “what we’re going to do long term.”
If the state Senate passes this bill and the governor signs into law, Scanlon said, then everyone watching the House deliberate on Thursday can know that at least for the next seven months, “they will be protected. Their families will be protected.”
East Hartford Democrat State Rep. Jeff Currey (pictured) said that expanding access to telehealth is not an abstract legislative necessity for him.
Just recently, he said, he was diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney failure. He subsequently had a four-hour Zoom appointment with health care providers at Hartford Hospital.
“It was absolutely no different than sitting in front of them face to face,” he said. “You felt the emotion, you felt the care.”
In order to avoid congregating in close quarters so as to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19, state legislators spent most of the day’s session watching a live video feed of the proceedings from their individual offices in the state Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
If they wanted to speak on a particular bill, they made their way from the LOB through a pedestrian tunnel and over to the State Capitol, where they proceeded to speak up on the matter — all as broadcast live to the public on CT‑N.
State legislators also cast their votes remotely, with the State Capitol’s voting board lighting up in green to indicate which legislators voted in support of an item, and red to indicate a vote in opposition. At the end of the telehealth bill vote, the board glowed bright green.
