WBUP ABC 10 Marquette: Sen. Gary Peters introduces Telehealth bill

LANSING–  Michigan Senator Gary Peters reintroduced a bill today to expand Telehealth services throughout the country.

Peters has been a strong advocate for expanding Telehealth services for a while now, as it will help people with disabilities, or in rural areas, be able to get treatment without having to travel to a hospital or doctors office.

Telehealth services would allow a person to visit with a physician from the comfort of their own homes, and could even wear monitors that will transmit their vital signs.

Telehealth is being used in some areas, but this bill looks at one aspect of the funding to help it reach more people.

“Currently under the medicare system, if a hospital uses Telehealth to talk to another hospital, that is covered by medicare. But the real power of Telehealth is not hospital–to–hospital, it’s hospital–to–your home. Right now, medicare will not pay for that. My legislation will create a pilot program and really pushes medicare to move forward with reimbursing providers so they offer this service, so it will be available to folks all across this country,” says Peters.

The next hurdle in ensuring that Telehealth services can be used by people all over the country is everyone having access to high speed internet, which is another important issue for Peters.