Kansas Telemedicine Laws: Waivers, Prescribing, Coverage

Kansas put its telemedicine law in the insurance code. The Kansas Telemedicine Act, K.S.A. 40-2,210 through 40-2,216, mandates coverage, declines payment parity in the next subsection, and says nothing about patient consent. The rules deciding who may practice sit elsewhere: a 2021 statute creating a permanent telemedicine waiver for out-of-state physicians, and a Board of Healing Arts regulation that resolves prescribing in one sentence.

Licensure: a waiver alongside the compacts

K.A.R. 100-77-2 answers the jurisdictional question for the board's own rules: "For the purposes of this article of the board's regulations, the delivery of healthcare services shall be deemed to occur at the originating site." The originating site is where the patient is, so a Kansas patient requires Kansas authority. One route is a Kansas license. The other is the telemedicine waiver in K.S.A. 65-28,135, enacted in 2021 and carrying no sunset. A physician licensed by another state may treat Kansas patients by telemedicine if the Board of Healing Arts issues a waiver; it must act within 15 days of a complete application, and the applicant must hold an unrestricted license in another state or otherwise meet Kansas's qualifications for a license to practice medicine and surgery, and not be under any investigation or disciplinary action. Renewal runs on the Board's own schedule and carries an annual renewal fee. Holders follow Kansas practice rules, and an agency may deny an application if granting it "may endanger the health and safety of the public." Another subsection lets an out-of-state physician consult "without limitation" with a Kansas-licensed physician remotely. Note the limit: the waiver runs to physicians, and subsection (g) only permits another licensing agency to "adopt procedures consistent with this section" for its own professionals, so non-physicians should confirm their own board has actually adopted them.

Kansas is compact-rich. It is a full Interstate Medical Licensure Compact member, effective May 13, 2016; it has issued multistate nursing licenses since July 1, 2019; it is a PSYPACT participating state effective January 1, 2022; and it is a full Physical Therapy Compact member. It has joined the Counseling Compact but is not yet issuing privileges. HB 2533, signed in 2026, added the Occupational Therapy, Respiratory Care, Esthetics, and Athletic Trainer compacts. See our cross-state licensing tracker.

Prescribing: the rule is that there is no special rule

K.A.R. 100-77-3 is the whole telemedicine prescribing framework: "The same laws and regulations that apply to a healthcare provider prescribing drugs, including controlled substances, by means of in-person contact with a patient shall apply to prescribing drugs, including controlled substances, by means of telemedicine." No schedule is barred, and no prior in-person exam is required, because K.S.A. 40-2,212(b) states that telemedicine may establish a valid provider-patient relationship. Physicians under a waiver carry one extra statutory duty: conduct an appropriate assessment and evaluation of the patient's current condition, and document the appropriate medical indication for any prescription issued.

K-TRACS, the prescription monitoring program, is lighter on prescribers than most expect. K.S.A. 65-1683 directs the Board of Pharmacy to maintain a program monitoring "scheduled substances and drugs of concern" dispensed in Kansas or to a Kansas address, and requires each dispenser to submit prescription information electronically, with methods and frequency set by board regulation. That duty runs to dispensers, a term the Act defines to include a practitioner who dispenses, so a physician who dispenses carries it. No section of the act imposes a registration or query duty on prescribers acting as prescribers. Medicaid agreements and employer policies can add checks, so verify with the Board of Pharmacy.

Kansas restricts no schedule, so the federal layer does the limiting. Our DEA prescribing report tracks it (currently extended through the end of 2026); verify current status before a telepsychiatry practice commits to a controlled-substance model.

Consent: absent from the statute, present in the program

The Act has no consent section. K.S.A. 40-2,212 covers four other things: HIPAA and 42 C.F.R. § 2.13 confidentiality standards apply as in person; telemedicine may establish a valid provider-patient relationship; in-person standards of practice and conduct apply; and the provider must give the patient guidance on appropriate follow-up care. That last duty has a second half with three qualifiers. Except when otherwise prohibited by law, when the patient consents, and when the patient has a primary care or other treating physician, the provider must send that physician a report of the treatment and services rendered within three business days. Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board licensees are expressly exempt from it. Kansas Medicaid supplies the rule the statute omits: verbal consent followed by written approval, documented in the record, with signed member consent in home health and HCBS programs.

Medicaid: coverage mandated, rates matched, coding narrower

The Act's coverage section reaches the Kansas medical assistance program by its terms, so KanCare may not exclude an otherwise covered service solely because it came by telemedicine. Kansas Medicaid pays telemedicine at the in-person rate, billed with place of service 02 when the patient is outside the home and 10 at home. Store-and-forward sits inside the statutory definition, but the program has identified no eligible services or payment mechanism. Remote patient monitoring runs through home health and HCBS programs, with real-time video monitoring by nurses billed under T1030 and T1031, capped at two visits weekly outside HCBS.

Audio-only is the unsettled piece, and the definition rewards close reading. Telemedicine must come by "real-time two-way interactive audio, visual, or audio-visual communications," including secure video conferencing or store-and-forward technology. There are exactly two exclusions, and they are not symmetrical: communication between healthcare providers consisting solely of a telephone voice-only conversation, email, or facsimile transmission; and communication between a physician and a patient consisting solely of an email or facsimile transmission. Real-time interactive audio between physician and patient is inside the definition. Coding policy is narrower: telephone evaluation codes 99441 through 99443 were discontinued effective January 1, 2025, so confirm the code list with KMAP.

Private insurance: coverage parity, and a deliberate stop

K.S.A. 40-2,213 reaches individual and group policies, medical service plans, hospital and medical service corporation contracts, fraternal benefit societies, and HMOs issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2019. They may not exclude an otherwise covered service solely because it is delivered through telemedicine rather than in-person contact, or because of "the lack of a commercial office for the practice of medicine" — but only "when such service is delivered by a healthcare provider," which the Act defines as a physician, a licensed physician assistant, a licensed advanced practice registered nurse, or a person authorized to practice by the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board. Professions outside that list are outside the mandate.

The medical record satisfies all documentation for reimbursement; nothing further may be required. Then subsection (d) stops short: payment "may be established" in the same manner as for in-person services. Permission, not obligation. Three savings clauses follow: plans may cover only medically necessary services subject to plan terms, need not cover by telemedicine anything not already covered, and may not require an enrollee to use telemedicine in lieu of in-person care from an in-network provider. Coverage parity, no payment parity: model commercial revenue from contracts, as our reimbursement guide explains.

What to watch

Three items. First, abortion — legislated separately and pointedly. K.S.A. 40-2,215 says nothing in the Act authorizes delivery of any abortion procedure by telemedicine, and K.S.A. 40-2,216 declares that one section expressly nonseverable while leaving the rest severable. It does not stand alone: K.S.A. 65-4a10 requires RU-486 to be initially administered in the physical presence of the prescribing physician, and any other abortion-inducing drug or its prescription to be given in that physician's physical presence, with exceptions for medical emergencies and certain hospital labor-induction cases. Kansas courts enjoined enforcement of the telemedicine restriction and that injunction remains in effect; verify current status.

Second, whether other licensing agencies use the authority in K.S.A. 65-28,135(g), and when the compacts added in 2026 begin issuing privileges. Third, the federal layer — DEA telemedicine prescribing and Medicare telehealth flexibilities — which decides what Kansas's prescribing rule is worth; verify current status. Verify current requirements with the Board of Healing Arts, the Board of Pharmacy, and KDHE, and compare Kansas with its neighbors in the national overview.