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Florida Telehealth Council Powers Up In Jacksonville

AHCA's Justin Senior helms the first meeting of Florida's Telehealth Advisory Council in Jacksonville.
Ryan Benk
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A new state telehealth panel met in Jacksonville Tuesday to begin studying the state of distance medicine in Florida.

The legislature created the 15-member council this year after it couldn’t agree on telehealth regulations, specifically which doctors could use the technology and how they’d be compensated.

Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Justin Senior, who also serves as the Telehealth Advisory Council chairman, said the first task is mapping out how and where telehealth already happens, including kiosks, hospitals, doctor’s offices and even private residences.

“We’re just trying to understand where practitioners and where facilities are with respect to telemedicine because it is already occurring,” he said.

The council has to publish initial findings by the end of the year, and concrete recommendations are due in a year.

Senior said board members have their work cut out for them. Ideally, they would get doctors, medical supply companies and insurers to agree how to regulate the cost and reimbursement of distance medicine technology, he said.

Then lawmakers must agree how to implement those recommendations. Senior added he doesn’t know how easy that will be.

“It’s impossible for me to predict how a legislature might react to the recommendations,” he said.

That’s because the legislature that will decide won’t be elected until next year. The council will continue meeting monthly.

Reporter Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, at (904) 358 6319 or on Twitter @RyanMichaelBenk

Copyright 2020 WJCT News 89.9. To see more, visit WJCT News 89.9.

Ryan Benk is originally from Miami, Florida and came to Tallahassee to attend Florida State University. He worked on Miami Dade College’s Arts and Literature Magazine- Miamibiance Magazine and has published poetry and a short film called “ The Writer.” He’s currently working as the Newsroom’s Researcher while finishing his Creative Writing Bachelor’s Degree at Florida State University. When he’s not tracking down news, Ryan likes watching films, writing fiction and poetry, and exploring Florida.