HB 15-1029 Summary

• Expands telehealth coverage statewide by requiring health benefit plans issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2017 to cover telehealth services in any area of Colorado, removing previous restrictions limited to rural counties with populations of 150,000 or fewer.

• Prohibits carriers from denying coverage of telehealth services or requiring providers to document barriers to in-person care; providers may decline telehealth only when clinically inappropriate or when a patient chooses in-person care instead.

• Mandates carriers reimburse telehealth services at the same rate as in-person services and apply identical cost-sharing (deductibles, copayments, coinsurance) and annual/lifetime benefit limits to telehealth as to in-person care.

• Requires carriers to include reasonable compensation for transmission costs at originating sites (excluding patients' private residences) as part of telehealth payment.

• Defines telehealth as delivery of health care services through telecommunications systems including synchronous real-time interactions and store-and-forward transfers, but excludes telephone, facsimile, or email communications; excludes short-term travel, accident-only, and limited disease policies from requirements.