Senate Bill 133 Summary

• Establishes the legal framework for telemedicine in Arkansas, defining it as real-time two-way electronic audio-visual communications between healthcare professionals and patients at distant sites.

• Requires healthcare professionals providing telemedicine services to be fully licensed or certified in Arkansas and to maintain a professional relationship with patients (established through prior in-person examination, ongoing relationship, consultation arrangements, or emergency circumstances).

• Mandates that health benefit plans cover and reimburse telemedicine services provided by licensed physicians on the same basis as in-person services, with combined reimbursement to distant and originating sites not less than in-person service amounts.

• Prohibits health benefit plans from imposing separate annual or lifetime dollar maximums, discriminatory cost-sharing, or prior authorization requirements exceeding those for in-person services on telemedicine coverage.

• Declares an emergency effective April 1, 2015, citing Arkansas's healthcare professional maldistribution and medically underserved areas requiring immediate regulatory guidance.