New Bill in State Senate Would Expand Access to Out-of-State Providers Through Telehealth Services

Thursday, November 30th, 2023 -- 9:00 AM

(Natalie Eilbert, Green Bay Press-Gazette) At a time when Wisconsinites must wait weeks and months to see a mental health professional, a new bill in the state Senate would expand access to out-of-state providers through telehealth services.

According to Natalie Eilbert with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families held a public hearing on Senate Bill 515 on Tuesday.

The bill would enable out-of-state providers to practice via telehealth without first needing to be licensed within the state, so long as their license is in good standing. Prior to the public hearing, it's gone through two amendments and passed the Assembly in a voice vote.

The Institute for Reforming Government, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for bipartisan "kitchen-table issues," is championing the bill, according to Alex Ignatowski, its director of state budget and government reform, who spoke at the public hearing.

State Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, introduced the bill by underscoring Wisconsin's ongoing mental health crisis, a crisis that exposes the shortage of providers in the state. "As a provider myself, whatever you can do to lower barriers to enhance compliance, you need to do that," Cabral-Guevara said.

This is not the first time Wisconsin residents have had access to out-of-state mental health providers. Wisconsinites had a brief window of telehealth access shortly after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued the state public health emergency March 12, 2020.

Under Emergency Order 16, issued March 27, 2020, any health care provider outside Wisconsin could work with patients in Wisconsin, so long as they registered a temporary or permanent license with the Department of Safety and Professional Services within 10 days of working with the patient.

But those licenses, and many of the relationship forged between patient and provider, expired when the state public health emergency ended in May.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.