State Telemedicine Policy Information
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Idaho Telemedicine Policy
Idaho Telemedicine Policy
Idaho may be the Gem State, but it needs more polish to shine in telemedicine access and availability. There is no private payer parity law in place and there has not been any legislative activity on this front in the last two years. Keep an eye on Idaho in the coming years to track progress on telehealth policy.
State Policy Overview
Medicaid
Yes
Private Payer
No
Parity
No
Additional State Telemedicine Info
Parity Laws
Idaho does not currently have a private payer parity law and hasn’t proposed any legislation for parity in the last several years. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t get paid for telemedicine.
While a telemedicine parity law would require all private payers in the state to reimburse for telemedicine, many payers will still cover it anyway. Check with your payers to see how they cover telehealth services.
Medicaid
Idaho’s Medicaid program defines telehealth as “health care services provided by a provider to a participant through the use of electronic communications, information technology, synchronous interaction between a provider at a distant site and a patient at an originating site.” This means the state’s Medicaid will cover live video telemedicine for a range of medical services, but does not reimburse for remote patient monitoring or store-and-forward.
Type Of Telemedicine Covered
Idaho Medicaid reimburses for live-video telemedicine, but not store-and-forward or remote patient monitoring.
Covered Health Services
Idaho Medicaid covers live-video telemedicine for a range of mental health, primary care, therapy, and developmental disability services. More specifically, the program allows the following services via telehealth:
- Primary care
- Specialty services
- Psychotherapy with evaluation and management
- Psychiatric diagnostic interview
- Pharmacological management
- Therapeutic consultation and crisis intervention
- Interpretive services
Eligible Healthcare Providers
The following healthcare providers can bill for telemedicine through Idaho Medicaid:
- Physician
- Nurse practitioner
- Physician assistant
- Nurse-midwife
- Clinical nurse specialist
- Clinical psychologist
- Physical, Occupation, Speech therapists
- Early Intervention Specialist
Online Prescriptions
In Idaho, providers can prescribe medication via telemedicine to established patients. The state does prohibit prescription of any drugs for abortion.
Informed Patient Consent
The patient’s written informed consent is required to do a telemedicine visit.
Cross-State Telemedicine Licensing
Idaho has recently joined the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which supports expedited medical licensing for providers across state lines.
Restrictions On Locations
Idaho Medicaid does not have any current stated requirements on patient location at the time of the visit.
Billing Codes
Telehealth services should be billed with the relevant HCPCS code and the GT modifier to mark it as telehealth. For details on billing Medicaid, see Idaho’s Telehealth Manual.