Massachusetts requires private-payer telehealth payment parity only for behavioral health, not all services
Summary
Massachusetts guarantees telehealth reimbursement at the in-person rate only for behavioral health services. For other services, private payers are not required to pay telehealth at parity, so medical and specialty telehealth visits can be reimbursed below in-person rates.
Massachusetts statute requires payment parity for behavioral health delivered via audio-video or audio-only, but does not extend the same guarantee to all categories of telehealth. As a result, private payers may reimburse non-behavioral telehealth visits at lower rates than the equivalent in-person visit. This affects primary care and specialty clinicians who deliver care by telehealth and can discourage telehealth adoption outside behavioral health.
Source: Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), Massachusetts state telehealth page (2026).
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