US senator Tom Udall, a Democrat from Utah, is proposing to introduce a bill to Congress in a few months that would make it easier for doctors to deliver health services remotely to rural parts of the country by removing some existing regulation. The idea of the bill is to enable licence portability between states rather than the current rules which insist on a separate licence for each state, according to Government Health IT.

Currently a doctor must have a licence for each state where his or her patients receive remote health services. Udall’s bill aims to simplify this process and is currently being drafted. The idea of nationwide licensing is supported by organisation such as the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). Some federal agencies such as Veteran Affairs already offer licence portability to their doctors.