One of the key reforms in the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” was a change to Medicaid eligibility, projected to reduce rural healthcare spending by $155 billion over the next decade. Although a new $50 billion “Rural Health Transformation Program” partially offsets this, state governments and rural healthcare systems will still need to find ways to serve patients while remaining financially viable. Fortunately, several states have already set examples others can follow.
Telemedicine helps bridge the gap between where doctors live—urban areas—and where the communities most in need of them are—rural areas. While telemedicine can’t substitute for certain in person care, it enables access to specialists for chronic or non-urgent conditions. One way states have expanded telemedicine is through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC). Currently, 40 states and U.S. territories have joined, reducing the time required to get a license to practice in another state to seven to 10 days on average. Just over a third of new licenses go to physicians intending to serve rural areas, and states that join the IMLC typically see a 10 to 15 percent increase in the doctors licensed to practice in the state.
Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia’s created their own compact in the form of a reciprocity system that allows doctors licensed in one jurisdiction to offer services in all three. Other states, like Florida, offer separate telehealth licenses for out-of-state doctors. All of these efforts increase the supply of healthcare services, reduce wait times and lower patient costs.
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Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal