Telemedicine in Illinois: Laws and Regulations | Blog

Ask ten Illinois practice managers whether insurers have to pay for a video visit, and you will get ten different answers. Some will tell you that coverage is optional. Others will insist the rules ended along with the pandemic. A few gave up on virtual visits because the billing felt too messy.

Most of them are working from outdated information.

Illinois rewrote its telehealth rules in 2021, and the changes were bigger than most practices realize. Coverage is no longer the insurer's choice, and payment rates are protected. Your patients no longer have to sit inside a clinic to see you online.

If your team still turns away video visits, you are leaving money behind.

Here is a sample calculation.

Say you see 40 patients a week, and 3 of them would rather handle a routine follow-up by video. At $95 a visit, that comes to $285 a week, or roughly $14,800 over a year.

That is just three patients. Run the same math across a six-provider group and you clear $88,000 in annual revenue.

The catch is that Illinois telemedicine law lives in several separate documents. The Telehealth Act sets the terms, while the Insurance Code covers private plans. Medicaid handbooks control how you bill. Federal rules sit on top of everything, and one major rule expires this year.

This guide gathers all of it in one place. You will learn who can practice telehealth in Illinois, what plans must cover, how Medicaid pays, and what you can prescribe online. You will also learn which deadlines are approaching.

No legal jargon. Just what your practice needs to get paid.

How Illinois Defines Telehealth and Telemedicine

We’ll review the definitions of telehealth and telemedicine found in two places:

1. The statutory law of Illinois
2. The Illinois Administrative Code

The Illinois Statutes

The Illinois Compiled Statutes contain the Telehealth Act, a document that outlines how the state views remote healthcare. Illinois defines telehealth as any interaction between a licensed healthcare professional and a “remote location” that involves diagnosis, evaluation, treatment recommendations, and interpretation of electronically transmitted patient data.

Telemedicine is defined as the delivery of healthcare services through an interactive system for telecommunication. The Illinois Insurance Code clarifies further what these systems are any interactive, two-way video or audio communication channels.

The Illinois Administrative Code

The Illinois Administrative Code (IAC) compiles administrative rules of state agencies. The Code provides definitions relevant to the telehealth services providers covered by the Department of Healthcare and Human Services’ (HHS) medical programs.

This means that if you’re hoping to get reimbursed by Medicaid, your telehealth services need to fall within the scope of the definitions provided by the Code.

According to IAC, telehealth entails services provided through a telecommunication system. The document does not specify which services, leaving the definition incomplete.

Telemedicine is defined as the use of any system, synchronous or asynchronous, for the evaluation and treatment of a patient who is at one medical provider location by a provider who is at another one. This means that the patient must be at a hospital, clinic, or another medical facility at the time of the telemedicine encounter.

IAC also includes the term “telepsychiatry,” which means providing psychiatric services remotely under the same conditions that apply to telemedicine. Remote psychiatric care is allowed but only for inpatient care.

You can still treat patients remotely even if they aren’t in a medical facility—it is not forbidden by law—but HHS’ medical payer programs won’t reimburse you for your efforts. We will discuss HHS’ telehealth rules and regulations for Medicaid in great detail later in the article.

Which Providers Can Deliver Telehealth in Illinoi

The core rule is short. If your patient is in Illinois, you must be licensed here. You also have to meet the same standard of care you would meet in the exam room. And you have to stay inside your scope.

Telehealth does not lower the bar. It just changes the room.

The list of providers who can practice telehealth here is long. It covers:

• Physicians and physician assistants
• Advanced practice nurses
• Optometrists and dentists
• Clinical and prescribing psychologists
• Clinical social workers
• Occupational therapists
• Physical therapists and their assistants
• Pharmacists
• Speech-language pathologists and audiologists
• Hearing instrument dispensers
• Mental health clinicians allowed by state law

A 2025 law added clear telehealth rights for physical therapists. That fixed a gap that used to spark billing fights.

Cross-state Licensing for Telehealth in Illinois

Telehealth practice in the state is not limited to Illinois-based providers.

The great news for out-of-state practitioners who wish to provide telehealth services in Illinois is that the state is a member of two interstate medical alliances:

1. Interstate Medical Licensure Compact
2. Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact

The state’s membership with these two compacts makes it easier for both physical and mental health professionals to obtain the authorization to practice telemedicine in Illinois.

The providers holding one of the two interstate licenses must abide by the same rules and regulations as Illinois-based practitioners when providing telehealth services to Illinoisians.

Prescribing Medication Through a Virtual Visit

Illinois has no separate law on what you may prescribe by video. Your judgment rules, and so does the in-person standard of care.

The real deadline is federal.

The DEA and HHS have pushed back the pandemic prescribing rules several times. The current window runs through December 31, 2026.

Here is what it allows without an in-person exam first:

So your prescribing workflow has an end date. The DEA is still writing the permanent rule.

The safe move is simple. Keep clean notes on every remote prescription now, and watch for the final rule before the year ends. Practices that build the habit early will not scramble in January.

Obtaining Patient Consent

The law doesn’t say anything about patient consent. As you are not legally obligated to obtain it, you can start a telemedicine session without worrying about it.

Even though Illinois law doesn’t mandate getting informed consent, it is still advisable to do so. On the federal level, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) obliges you to keep your patient data private and secure. 

Telemedicine platforms often come with the risk of data breaches, and it would be reasonable to inform your patients about this issue.

This is also why choosing the right platform for online patient care is essential. Instead of going for a consumer app that comes with many risks, you should opt for a healthcare-specific, 100% HIPAA compliant one, such as Curogram. Our platform has all the technical safeguards in place to ensure all protected health information (PHI) you exchange with your patients is safe.

Who Covers Telehealth Services in Illinois?

There’s always a back-and-forth between insurers and states regarding telehealth services coverage. The former often argue that they should determine the reimbursement rates for telehealth, whereas the state lawmakers try to impose parity, which would oblige them to pay the same rates as they would for the corresponding in-person services.

When it comes to reimbursement for telehealth services in Illinois, there are two coverage options:

1. Private payers
2. Medicaid

Private Payer Laws

This is where the law shifted most, and where outdated advice does the most damage. Illinois passed a telehealth parity law in 2021. Governor Pritzker signed it on July 22 of that year.

It delivered two separate protections.

Coverage parity means a plan must cover telehealth, e-visits, and virtual check-ins just like any other benefit. The care has to be medically necessary and clinically appropriate. Payment parity means in-network telehealth earns the same rate as the same service given in person.

There is a clock on the second protection. Payment parity ends on January 1, 2028 for most services. It stays in place for good when the care involves mental health or substance use.

The law also blocks a long list of insurer tactics:

That last row carries real weight. Your practice chooses the technology, and your practice owns the risk that comes with it.

How Illinois Medicaid Pays for Telehealth

Medicaid asks for more detail than private plans do. But it is no longer the narrow program it once was.

Who can bill for the visit

For telemedicine, the treating provider must be a physician, physician assistant, podiatrist, or advanced practice nurse. You need a license in Illinois, or in the state where your patient sits. For telepsychiatry, you must be a doctor who finished a psychiatry residency.

Behavioral health opens the list up. Illinois Medicaid pays psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and health centers. Epilepsy specialists are covered too.

Where the patient can be

The state counts many places as a valid patient site. The list covers doctor and podiatrist offices, health departments, mental health centers, and outpatient hospitals. Each site can bill a facility fee.

Behavioral telehealth is different, and better. By law, Illinois Medicaid cannot set site or map limits on it. Your patient can be anywhere.

One old rule needs a direct fix. Illinois Medicaid stopped asking staff to sit with the patient back in January 2018. If your policy manual still says they must, change it.

Getting the billing right

Coding is where clean claims are won or lost.

Here are the codes that matter:

Group therapy is still not covered. That one gap causes a lot of denials.

Remote patient care

As you have seen, Medicaid usually doesn’t offer reimbursement for seeing your patient unless they’re at a medical facility already. It is clear that the state is still suspicious about the use of telecommunication channels for remote patient care.

There are two instances of remote patient monitoring that Medicaid will cover:

• Elderly patient care
• Home uterine monitoring

These come with their own sets of requirements, which makes it even more obvious that you’re unlikely to get any money from Medicaid practicing telemedicine.

Expansion of Telehealth Services During the COVID-19 National Emergency

Due to the national health crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19, Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2020-09 to expand the scope of what the state considers telehealth services as well as the technology that can be used. The Order loosens the Medicaid regulations significantly and presents a great example of how the Telehealth Act could be revised in the near future.

On the federal level, the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights issued legislation that allows providers to use non-HIPAA compliant remote communication technologies for as long as the national emergency lasts. 

Illinois decision-makers did not stop at relaxing the legal requirements for telehealth practice—they introduced a program for monitoring patients with milder symptoms of the virus through the use of telemedicine.

This might be the right time for the State of Illinois to realize how useful telehealth can be and make some of the temporary changes permanent.

Start Practicing Telemedicine in Illinois with Curogram

Whether you’re transitioning to telemedicine or broadening the scope of your services to include online medical care, Curogram is the right solution for you.

There’s no need to test your luck and your patients’ patience by using an inadequate platform that could compromise their sensitive data. Curogram provides you with a top-of-the-line messaging and telemedicine platform designed for use in healthcare.

Curogram is the best solution for everyone—patients, staff, and doctors

Choosing the familiarity of a consumer app over the efficiency of our medical platform will cost you and your clinic a lot in the long run. You shouldn’t be afraid of a learning curve because there isn’t one—your patients will receive appointment reminders and visit links in an SMS! You get a real local number for texting that your patients can save in their contacts.

Your staff will love Curogram as it will allow them to communicate with everyone—be it patients, colleagues, or partner providers— from a single dashboard! There’s no need for dedicated business phones or other devices.

Your doctors won’t have to waste time prepping the patients or dealing with tedious administrative tasks—Curogram streamlines the appointments and makes it possible for doctors to see patient after patient without hindrances.

The best thing about it—Curogram integrates with any electronic management system in less than 48 hours.

Telemedicine by State

Don’t see your state? We just haven’t written about it yet! Stay tuned on our blog or check out our article on telemedicine reimbursement by state.

Telemedicine by State in the US

Conclusion

Illinois now ranks among the friendlier states for telehealth. That shift is recent. The 2021 parity law turned coverage from a favor into a rule.

Your patients can be treated at home. Their copay cannot rise because they chose video. And you pick the tech, not the insurer.

That last point is where most of the risk still sits.

Two dates belong on your calendar. Federal rules for prescribing controlled substances online expire December 31, 2026. Any workflow that leans on remote prescribing needs a look before then. Pay parity for most Illinois services ends January 1, 2028, though mental health and substance use care keep it for good.

Neither date calls for panic. Both reward practices that plan early.

The work in front of you is smaller than it sounds.

Confirm your platform has a signed business associate agreement. Update any policy that still asks staff to sit with the patient. Retrain the front desk to stop hedging about coverage, because in Illinois these visits are covered. Then check that your billers use the right modifier and site code every time.

Those four steps take an afternoon. They protect money you already earn and money you now turn away.

Your technology deserves the same attention. A platform built for healthcare handles the rules quietly in the background. That frees your staff to focus on patients instead of paperwork. It also closes the gap between a booked visit and a finished one, which is where most practices lose money without noticing.

Ready to see how secure texting and virtual visits fit together? Explore how Curogram supports telehealth practices in Illinois and see what a compliant setup looks like for your team.

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