Health insurance and employee benefit plans; extend repealer on mandated coverage for telemedicine services.

Mississippi patients keep telemedicine coverage longer

Effective June 30, 2025, the law extends Mississippi’s telemedicine coverage rules, moving their expiration from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 2028. Health insurance and employee benefit plans must keep covering telemedicine to the same extent as in-person care. This includes state employee and public health plans, but excludes policies covering only specified diseases or limited benefits. Deductibles, copays, and coinsurance cannot exceed those for in-person visits; plans can still require medical necessity. Plans must pay out-of-network telemedicine providers under their usual out-of-network rules. Coverage includes remote patient monitoring and stored information sent for later review, without requiring live video for those services. Other telemedicine generally requires live audio and video, though insurance rules can allow medically appropriate audio-only care. Coverage cannot be limited to consultations between providers. Only the site where care starts is eligible for a facility fee—not the remote provider’s site or the patient.