State Telemedicine Policy Information
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Tennessee Telemedicine Policy
Tennessee Telemedicine Policy
Tennessee’s updated 2016 telehealth parity law requires reimbursement for telehealth under private payers, Medicaid, and state employee plans at comparable rates to in-person care.
In turn, Tennessee doesn’t have strict limitations on prescribing or patient setting, which is great news for telemedicine providers.
State Policy Overview
Medicaid
Yes
Private Payer
Yes
Parity
Yes
Additional State Telemedicine Info
Parity Laws
Tennessee’s parity law requires private payers, Medicaid, managed care plans and state employee health plans to provide equivalent reimbursement for telemedicine and in-person services.
Medicaid
TennCare is required to provide coverage for telehealth under the state’s parity law. However, each TennCare Managed Care organization has their own telehealth policy, which may vary between organizations. Currently, Medicaid considers telehealth to mean live video telemedicine and not store-and-forward or remote patient monitoring solutions.
Type Of Telemedicine Covered
Tennessee’s parity law requires private payers to cover both live video and store-and-forward solutions. Medicaid, however, only provides reimbursement for live video telemedicine.
Covered Health Services
Tennessee Medicaid covers live video telehealth for crisis-related services. Otherwise, there are no specific limitations within that state of what medical services can be delivered via telemedicine.
Eligible Healthcare Providers
Tennessee does not specify the type of healthcare provider allowed to practice telemedicine.
Online Prescriptions
Physicians are allowed to prescribe controlled substances based on a telemedicine visit. Providers should make sure to document the visit, take a medical history and perform any needed exam in order to make a diagnosis, and ensure proper follow-up care.
Informed Patient Consent
For a physician to receive reimbursement through Medicaid, patients must be informed and given an opportunity to request an in-person assessment prior to telemedicine treatment.
Cross-State Telemedicine Licensing
Tennessee has joined the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, but implementation has been delayed. Check this page for updates!
Restrictions On Locations
There are no restrictions on patient setting or distance for telemedicine in Tennessee.
Reimbursement Rates
Tennessee’s parity law protects reimbursement rates for telemedicine, requiring reimbursement to be equivalent to in-person care.