ORONO, Maine - Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King is calling for increased federal investment and support for telemedicine.
During a roundtable discussion today at the University of Maine in Orono, King said that, in addition to greater federal investment, he'd like to see regulatory changes that can improve access to vital health care services for people, especially the elderly, in rural states like Maine.
King says people here often have to drive a whole day for a 15- or 20-minute appointment. King told MPBN that he feels that Maine is only about 25 percent of where it should be.
"The technology is there, in many ways, although the big gap is in broadband, which is something we spent a lot of time talking about," King says. "It really doesn't work unless you have pretty good broadband connections and the very people we're trying to help the most are those that are in rural areas where broadband coverage is spotty."
King says, currently, regulatory uncertainty and a patchwork of inconsistent reimbursement rules and rates hampers the implementation of telemedicine.