NW New Mexico News

In New Mexico, rural health care providers are seeing a big change with telehealth, which will allow residents of rural areas to access more health care options without having to drive far distances to see a physician. 

Sylvia Villarreal, CEO and owner of Taos Clinic for Youth, told New Mexico Political Report that she has been offering telehealth for eight years. Telehealth allows patients to meet with their doctor through a video meeting, but has previously been limited due to insurance coverage and reimbursement. 

But the federal government has expanded reimbursements, which has expanded telehealth, according to the New Mexico Political Report. 

“For many of our kids, it’s difficult for them to get transportation or get in a car for two or three hours to get to an appointment,” Villarreal told the New Mexico Political Report. 

But telehealth would let families take their children to their local clinic, have a routine checkup, then speak with a specialist through a video conference. 

“The patient would be seen, we’d get their vital signs done, and the sub-specialist could then look in a patient’s electronic record to see past history or growth charts or labs, that kind of thing,” Villarreal told the New Mexico Political Report.

New Mexico also has one of the most progressive telehealth laws in the U.S., Beth Landon, chairperson of the New Mexico Telehealth Alliance, told the New Mexico Political Report. 

In 2019, a bill was passed to allow private health care to cover telehealth services as a regular in-person visit, according to the New Mexico Political Report. 

“A psychiatrist in eastern Albuquerque can provide via video care to an in-patient on the west side of Albuquerque, and we don’t have to pay for an hour of that psychiatrist’s time for driving,” Landon told the New Mexico Political Report. 

Rural areas will still encounter troubles with telehealth, Joie Glenn, executive committee member at New Mexico Telehealth Alliance told the New Mexico Political Report. 

Broadband is required for telehealth, but not everyone has access to it. 

“We don’t have broadband everywhere, providers don’t have the resources to purchase equipment that’s necessary to do this and there are rules for some providers that have not been able to do it,” Glenn told the New Mexico Political Report. 

But broadband isn't the only obstacle families encounter, but Villarreal said she can still talk to patient over the phone. 

“Many of our families don’t have technology, so they don’t have a computer, they don’t have internet, and many of their phones are not smartphones,” Villarreal told the New Mexico Political Report. “Now we have the possibility of me talking to a family at home, and if they don’t have technology, I can talk to them on the phone.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become a vital tool for patients, according to the New Mexico Political Report. 

“We’ve been working before COVID-19 to expand reimbursement for telemedicine, but in this crisis, we’ve expanded it significantly,” U.S. Rep Xochitl Torres Small told the New Mexico Political Report. “It’s helping address the preparedness challenge for COVID-19 in crucial ways. The more services that can be provided at home, the more we can make sure that we’re continuing to keep patients safe and healthy, that they’re not getting sick based on chronic conditions or other challenges while we’re trying to keep the clinics clean and try to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

But expanding telehealth is helping during the coronavirus pandemic, Glenn told the New Mexico Political Report. 

“COVID has helped this in a number of ways, for people to access this medium and really recognize the benefits of it. We’re kind of riding this wave in a real positive way, given the negative circumstances,” Glenn told the New Mexico Political Report. 

Villarreal said now that telehealth has expanded, there's no going back. 

“You can’t put the genie back in the bottle," she told the New Mexico Political Report. "The future of medicine, with Medicaid, is the ability to talk to families at home."