Policy Principles
These principles are meant as a resource for your organization to adopt and alter as best fits your organization's mission.
1
ACCESS
Telehealth should be used as a means to promote medically appropriate, culturally responsive, patient-centered access to health care. Achieving universal broadband access in New Hampshire will ensure all NH citizens enjoy access to the choice of telehealth, regardless of the rurality or topography of their location.
2
PATIENT PREFERENCE
Patients, in conjunction with their providers, should be offered their choice of service delivery mode. Patients should retain the right to receive health care in person
3
EVIDENCE
New Hampshire should await the conclusion of the work of the Commission to Study Telehealth prior to further restricting existing telehealth authorities in state law. Moreover, the State should use evidence and data regarding telehealth that was generated throughout 2020 and 2021 to guide future policy. The State should consider the impact of telehealth on the following domains or to what extent it has been used to address the following domains: as a substitution for in-person care, as prevention of more costly care, how it has impacted no show rates, how it has impacted transitions in care, identification of the specialties in which it has and has not been robustly utilized, its impact on access to treatment, its impact on health care service utilization, its impact on quality of health care, and its impact on health care cost and price by specialty.
4
ADDRESSING DISPARITIES IN CARE
Telehealth should be available to every member, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, geographic location, age, income, class, disability, immigration status, nationality, religious belief, or language proficiency.
5
STANDARD OF CARE
Standard of care requirements should apply to all services and information provided via telehealth, including quality, utilization, cost, medical necessity and clinical appropriateness.
6
STEWARDSHIP
The State should require the use of evidence-based strategies for the delivery of quality care, and will take steps to mitigate and address fraud, waste, discriminatory barriers and abuse conducted via telehealth.