OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
EMERGENCY CERTIFICATION
HB-6001
AN ACT CONCERNING TELEHEALTH.
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 21 $ FY 22 $
Social Services, Dept. GF - Potential See Below None
Cost
UConn Health Ctr. Other Funds - See Below None
Potential Revenue
Gain
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 21 $ FY 22 $
Various Municipalities STATE See Below See Below
MANDATE1 -
Potential Cost
Explanation
The bill establishes requirements for telehealth services, effective
from passage and ending on March 15, 2021, which could result in
increased costs to certain municipalities and the state as described
below. The bill may also result in additional patient care revenue to
UConn Health Center.
The bill makes changes that effectively expand the availability of
1State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a
way as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues.
Primary Analyst: ES 7/23/20
Contributing Analyst(s): ME, AN, JS
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telehealth services. Section 1 expands telehealth provisions under
statute. Sections 3 and 4 of the bill require health insurance policies to
maintain coverage for services provided via telehealth to the same
extent services are covered when provided in-person, while Section 5
prohibits a reduction in reimbursement for services because they are
provided via telehealth and not in person. These sections could result
in a cost to fully-insured municipalities to the extent the plans'
coverage differs from the bill. The impact would be reflected in
premium costs when policies are renewed in FY 21.
Pursuant to federal law self-insured plans are exempt from state
health mandates.
The bill may also result in additional patient care revenues to
UConn Health Center. This potential revenue gain may occur to the
extent that: (a) patients who would otherwise forego in-person care
instead choose to use telehealth services, and (b) the bill provides more
favorable telehealth reimbursement terms for providers than exist in
current contracts between UConn Health and health carriers. UConn
Health has experienced a substantial increase in telehealth usage and
revenues beginning in March 2020, with revenues for the 2020 calendar
year to date (exceeding $1 million) equal to approximately 900 times
the total telehealth revenues for the year 2019.
Section 6 could result in a cost associated with HUSKY coverage for
audio-only telehealth services if the Department of Social Services
commissioner and federal law allow for such reimbursement. The
actual cost would depend on the utilization of audio-only telehealth
services (the extent to which clients access services more than if
provided in-person) and the associated rate paid by the state.
The bill makes other changes that have no direct fiscal impact to the
state.
The Out Years
The bill's provisions are effective from passage until March 15, 2021.
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The preceding Fiscal Impact statement is prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly,
solely for the purposes of information, summarization and explanation and does not represent the intent of the
General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety
of informational sources, including the analysts professional knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.


Statutes affected:
New Bill: