Maine tries to boost to telemedicine

Health plans in Maine will soon be required to provide reimbursement for telemedicine services, thanks to a bill signed into law last week by Governor John Baldacci. In a statement, he said:

Telemedicine offers opportunities to increase the accessibility of health care, ensure that appropriate medical information is available, reduces medical errors and reduces health care costs.This bill makes sense and I am pleased to sign it.

There's nothing really wrong with this mandate, but on the other hand I doubt it will have much of an impact. Mainly physicians have yet to fully embrace telehealth and even when they use it they can be reluctant to charge.It will be interesting to see whether any of the telehealth-dedicated companies such as American Well or TelaDoc or SwiftMD decide to embark on a Maine marketing program.