Psychiatrists have a different concern: Finding doctors for patients who move out of state. Peter Rasmussen worries about how some will handle upcoming travel, especially because winter can bring icy weather.Ī fall "literally could be life ending" for someone with a condition like Parkinson's disease who has trouble walking, he said.
That doesn't help doctors like MacDonald who see patients from around the country.Ĭleveland Clinic also draws a lot of patients from out of state. Lee Schwamm, a vice president for the Mass General Brigham health system. It also wants those visits restricted to New England and Florida, where many patients spend the winter, said Dr. She will travel without her husband to save money, but that presents another problem: If she gets bad news, she'll handle it alone. These visits were done virtually during the pandemic. Rinehart doesn't have a specialist near her home outside Denver who can treat her. She needs regular scans and doctor visits to monitor a rare bone cancer that has spread from her skull to her spine. Susie Rinehart is planning two upcoming trips to her cancer doctor in Boston. That leaves follow-up visits, consultations or other care only to patients who have the means to travel for in-person meetings.
A few, like Arizona and Florida, have made it easier for out-of-state doctors to practice telemedicine.ĭoctors say the resulting patchwork of regulations creates confusion and has led some practices to shut down out-of-state telemedicine entirely. Some, like Virginia, have created exceptions for people who have an existing relationship with a physician. Over the past year, nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C., have ended emergency declarations that made it easier for doctors to use video visits to see patients in another state, according to the Alliance for Connected Care, which advocates for telemedicine use.
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