Thompson Bill Expanding Service Member Healthcare Access Becomes Law

Statement

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included the Servicemembers' Telemedicine and E-Health Portability (STEP) Act, legislation I introduced in 2011. The STEP Act has been praised by our military leadership, including recently retired General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, as reported recently in the Army Times: "A provision of the act, aimed at expanding federal exemptions for behavioral telehealth consultations across state lines, removes the requirement for health care providers to be licensed in the state in which their patients are being treated. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, then-Army vice chief of staff and an advocate for providing behavioral health counseling to soldiers in their homes via telehealth, praised the new law as a "big victory." "It's the biggest step forward we've seen in two years," Chiarelli told Army Times. "For me, it is huge. We have just to take advantage of it."…"

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