This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, March 24, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

During this pandemic state's suspended rules that prevented doctors from treating patients virtually

across state lines.

Now with the pandemic, hopefully nearing its end,

states like Arizona and Idaho are hoping to make those changes permanent.

And with the entry of major new players in the field like Amazon, Telehealth may be poised for rapid expansion.

Cato's Jeff Singer discusses how it might look going forward.

Jeff, before the pandemic really took hold in the United States

what was the state of telehealth in terms of its deployment and regulation at the state and federal level?

Well, telehealth was actually, the technology has been here for quite a long time, but it was underused.

We've had the means of conveying using telehealth, vital signs,

oxygenation. We could upload lab reports and of course we could visualize things by

telehealth but it had been underutilized insurance companies would pay for

some telehealth medicare will pay for some telehealth the main obstacle

was and still remains the state-based

obstacles of licenses requirement. So for example, I'm most anywhere in the United States health care practitioners only allowed to provide

telehealth services to people in the state in which they hold the license so in my own

state of Arizona where I practice, I can provide telehealth services, but I can't provide

telehealth services to anyone outside of my state and vice versa.

During the pandemic, the governors, I think of every state suspended that for the course of the pandemic so that because people were confined to their homes couldn't get to doctors, doctors offices as well, where many of them are closed.

So they made it possible for patients to get telehealth services from providers in any of the 50 states of

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