Michigan Telemedicine Laws: Licensure, Prescribing, Parity

Michigan is a full-license state with a short telehealth statute and a long prescribing statute. The rules that actually shape a Michigan telehealth practice sit outside the telehealth sections — in the controlled-substances article, which demands a bona fide prescriber-patient relationship and a MAPS check, and in the Medicaid statute, which mandates payment parity while the private-insurance statute stops at coverage. The 2026 story is the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which Michigan nearly lost and then re-enacted without a sunset.

Licensure: Michigan license, compact restored, no registration

Michigan has no out-of-state telehealth registration and no telehealth-only license. The operative sentence appears in the Insurance Code rather than the Public Health Code: under MCL 500.3476, telemedicine services "must be provided by a health care professional who is licensed, registered, or otherwise authorized" to practice "in the state where the patient is located." Michigan Medicaid's provider manual repeats that language. For a Michigan patient, that means a Michigan license.

The Public Health Code's licensure exemptions in MCL 333.16171 are narrow: students in training, military and federal service, disaster and emergency care, an out-of-state professional "called in for consultation or treatment" by a Michigan professional "in an exceptional circumstance," and a practitioner living adjacent to Michigan's land border whose practice extends across it without a Michigan office. None describes a virtual practice built on Michigan patients.

The compact route almost disappeared. Michigan's 2018 compact statute carried a sunset that the Legislature extended once and then let lapse on March 28, 2025, starting a one-year withdrawal clock. HB 5455 re-enacted the compact as a new MCL 333.16189 with no repeal date; the Senate passed it 31–0 on March 24, 2026, and it became Public Act 6 of 2026 two days later, before the withdrawal took effect. Our cross-state licensing tracker lists Michigan as a full IMLC member and the Physical Therapy Compact as enacted but not yet issuing privileges; for the nursing, psychology, and counseling compacts it has not yet verified Michigan's status, so confirm with each commission before relying on it.

Prescribing: the telehealth statute is short; the controlled-substance statute is not

MCL 333.16285 lets a health professional providing a telehealth service prescribe a drug if the professional is a prescriber acting within scope and, for a controlled substance, meets the Public Health Code's requirements for prescribing one. It adds two duties: a referral to geographically accessible services, including emergency care, when medically necessary, and availability for follow-up or a referral for it. The telehealth sections themselves bar no drug schedule and require no prior in-person exam.

The weight sits in MCL 333.7303a. A licensed prescriber may not prescribe a Schedule 2 through 5 controlled substance without a "bona fide prescriber-patient relationship," which MCL 333.7104 defines as a records review and an assessment of history and current condition, "including a relevant medical evaluation of the patient conducted in person or through telehealth," with records kept to accepted standards. Telehealth can establish the relationship; skipping the evaluation cannot. Before prescribing more than a three-day supply, the prescriber must obtain and review a report from MAPS, Michigan's prescription monitoring system, and every prescriber must be registered with MAPS before prescribing any controlled substance. The statute also requires asking about other controlled substances and recording the answer; hospice patients have their own exceptions.

Because Michigan bans no schedule by telehealth, the federal DEA framework does most of the limiting. Our DEA prescribing report tracks it (currently extended through the end of 2026); verify current status before building a controlled-substance workflow. Telepsychiatry practices should treat § 7303a as the binding checklist.

Consent: statutory, minimal, mirrored by Medicaid

MCL 333.16284 says a health professional "shall not provide a telehealth service without directly or indirectly obtaining consent for treatment." The only exception is care for an inmate housed in a Department of Corrections facility. It prescribes no form or signature; "directly or indirectly" leaves room for verbal consent captured at intake. MCL 333.16287 directs the licensing department, in consultation with the boards, to write implementing rules. Michigan Medicaid restates the requirement: consent must be obtained before the service and documented in the beneficiary's record. MCL 333.16286 lets a disciplinary subcommittee restrict a professional's telehealth practice for violating the consent or prescribing sections.

Medicaid: parity by statute, audio-only by database

Michigan wrote its Medicaid telehealth policy into law. MCL 400.105h requires the Medicaid and Healthy Michigan programs to cover telemedicine when the originating site is the home, a school, any site allowed in the Provider Manual, or "any established site considered appropriate by the provider"; to cover medical, dental, behavioral, and substance use disorder services; and to cover both audio-video and audio-only synchronous interactions. The programs may not impose tighter quantity limits than in-person care, may not require telemedicine in place of in-person contact, and may not reimburse distant providers "at a lower rate than comparable services rendered in person, except when reimbursing a provider who exclusively provides telemedicine services."

MDHHS bulletin MMP 23-10, effective May 12, 2023, turns the statute into billing rules. Audio-video services carry modifier 95 and audio-only services modifier 93, each with the place-of-service code that would apply in person. Audio-only is limited to codes on a rolling MDHHS audio-only database and is allowed only when the beneficiary cannot use video and prefers audio — "not the provider's convenience"; anything requiring visualization must be on video. Fee-for-service imposes no telehealth-specific prior authorization unless the in-person service needs one; managed care plans set their own. Asynchronous services — store-and-forward, e-consults, and remote patient monitoring — are covered under bulletin MSA 21-24, with RPM limited to FDA-defined medical devices and the device cost generally bundled into the service. The bulletin also says telemedicine "cannot be continued indefinitely" without periodic in-person reassessment.

Private insurance: coverage parity, not payment parity

MCL 500.3476 bars a state-regulated insurer from requiring face-to-face contact "for services appropriately provided through telemedicine, as determined by the insurer," and requires "at least the same coverage" for a service delivered by telemedicine as for the same service in person. Telemedicine remains subject to the policy's copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, and approved amounts. The definition covers HIPAA-compliant interactive audio or video, or both, and store-and-forward messaging, so audio-only sits inside it. What is missing is any rate language. Public Act 51 of 2024 (HB 4579, effective April 2, 2025) added the coverage sentence; the bill as introduced would have required reimbursement equal to office visits, and the Senate substitute that became law dropped it. Michigan has coverage parity and no payment parity for commercial plans, while Medicaid has both. Model commercial revenue from contracts, as our reimbursement guide explains.

What to watch

Three items. First, SB 772 of 2026, introduced January 28, 2026 and parked in a Senate committee, would amend § 3476 on telehealth reimbursement rates; it has not moved. Second, LARA's implementation of the re-enacted compact and any rules under § 16287. Third, the federal side — DEA telemedicine prescribing and Medicare telehealth flexibilities — determines what Michigan's permissive prescribing statute is worth; verify current status. Verify current requirements with the Board of Medicine, LARA, and MDHHS before acting, and compare Michigan with its neighbors in the national overview.