The use of telehealth has expanded considerably in the 21st century as new technologies have expanded the ways in which patients are able to receive care from their providers. Behavioral health has been no exception to this trend, yet state regulations and scopes of practice to regulate behavioral telehealth are often insufficient and lack uniformity. This lack of clarity can lead to behavioral health providers not providing certain beneficial services for fear of committing license violations or not getting reimbursed.

This report describes a study that analyzed state regulations and scopes of practice for 10 different behavioral health professions in 2016 to better understand which telebehavioral health services are authorized and how they are reimbursed by state Medicaid programs.