Background Three years following the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), states across the United States continue to enact permanent changes to telehealth laws that impact how physicians and other health care professionals can deliver care remotely. Nearly all states issued temporary policy flexibilities to swiftly expand access to telehealth at the onset of the PHE that accelerated the implementation, adoption, and widespread use of telehealth across the health care industry.1 Telehealth has become embedded in the practice of medicine, with patients and physicians alike overwhelmingly in support of care via telehealth.2,3 Starting in 2021, states shifted focus from temporary policy implementation toward assessing which pandemic-era policies should be continued on a permanent basis to support ongoing access to telehealth in a manner that meets the standard of care.

Originally Published with the the American Medical Association - December 2023.