Licensure Portability Grant Program

across many States.  The program is designed to encourage recipients to gather information on best practices and identify and carry out strategies for sharing information on successful approaches on cross-state licensures related to telemedicine with other States, stakeholders, and the public.  Recipients under this program will provide information on emerging policy changes by licensure bodies that have relevance to telehealth.  Health care delivery patterns do not always conform uniformly with State boundaries, particularly in the delivery of telemedicine services (where care is provided at a distance from the patient).  Accordingly, there are often situations in which a provider in one State is delivering services to a patient in another State.  Clinical practice is regulated through State licensure bodies and providers are required to be licensed in the State in which the patient is located.  The challenge for stakeholders is how to balance ensuring the safety of patients within the existing licensure system in a manner that also takes into account the growing use of telehealth technology to improve access to care for needed services in an efficient manner.  Licensure portability is seen as one of the key elements among the wide range of strategies needed to improve access to quality health care services through the deployment of telehealth and other electronic practice services (e-care or e-health services) in this country.  However, licensure portability goes beyond improving the efficiency and effectiveness of electronic practice services.  Overcoming unnecessary licensure barriers to cross-State practice is seen as part of a general strategy to expedite the mobility of health professionals in order to address workforce needs and improve access to health care services, particularly in light of increasing shortages of health care professionals and increased demand for health care services.  It is also seen as a way of improving the efficiency of the licensing system in this country so that scarce resources may be better used in the disciplinary and enforcement activities of State boards, rather than in duplicative licensing processes. This competition seeks projects that will serve as national models for cooperative State action and which will have implications for a range of stakeholders.  This includes States working on addressing statutory and regulatory licensure barriers to cross-State practice of telemedicine for all the health professions, including projects that have demonstrated success in pioneering creative programs to address these issues.  It also includes a broader range of telehealth stakeholders and the general public who will benefit from the information gathered through this investment.