Oppose Payment Parity for Telehealth

Many Americans, particularly during this pandemic, have benefitted from expanded access to telemedicine services. There are a number of bills in Congress that seek to make permanent changes in the rules to allow more access to telemedicine, but there are also pushes to mandate that insurers reimburse for telemedicine at the same rate as in-person visits (called payment parity). These crony price-fixing schemes are designed to thwart competition and keep healthcare costs high, and they must be opposed.

Write to Congress and tell them to oppose efforts to mandate payment parity for telehealth as they consider bills to expand access to this type of medicine.

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Oppose payment parity for telehealth

Dear [Decision Maker],

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A number of states have already passed laws mandating payment parity for telehealth. Yet telehealth is also thriving in states that have not mandated payment parity. Mandating that insurers pay the same for telehealth as in-person care erases telemedicine's cost-effectiveness: Compared to an average $146 office visit, a patient can connect with a physician virtually for $79. An online clinic in Minnesota reported an average of $88 lower cost per episode compared with traditional care. Some of these derive from reductions in costly urgent care or emergency room visits. More telehealth can make healthcare cheaper, but price-controls will artificially inflate prices. This is the opposite of what we should be doing. Such cost savings already provide economic incentives for insurers to offer telemedicine as part of their coverage plans, making government mandates duplicative and unnecessary.

Price controls are, in general, a bad idea that we should not pursue. Telemedicine is clearly part of the answer for COVID, but we cannot let cronyism ruin states' response as it has the federal response. At the federal level, we have even seen the government gagging doctors and telling them what they can and cannot say to their patients about COVID, particularly with regard to natural treatments that have strong evidence to back them up. We must let doctors decide what they tell their patients and also what they charge their patients.

Especially during this pandemic, it is not acceptable to censor doctors or to censor others who want to share solid scientific studies with the public or to seek to ban safe, effective, and low cost treatments just because they are not profitable for drug companies. We must reform our medical system so that good science can operate within a framework of good law. We must stop fighting the commonsense observation that what we eat and how we live can affect our health just as much or more than drugs.

Please oppose payment parity for telehealth and reform a healthcare system that not only bars the use, but even the mention, of natural remedies that have not been, and never can be, put through the multi-billion dollar FDA approval process.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
[Your Email]