Huffman, a physician, told this outlet in January that he wanted to modernize the state’s guidelines on veterinary medicine after seeing the benefits of telehealth in the medical field.
“You know, it became very rapid and very successful in medicine because of COVID,” Huffman said. “And to me, it sped up (progress); what was going to happen within 10 years we did within one year.”
He noted that veterinary telehealth visits, which currently are not permitted under Ohio law, could benefit Ohioans, particularly the elderly, who might “find it hard to get your cat to the veterinarian.”
In committee testimony, the bill received both support and opposition from individual vets and clinics, with detractors like veterinarian Andrea Miller concerned that “virtual care cannot replicate in-person evaluations.”
“As a practicing veterinarian, I’ve encountered countless cases where verbal symptom descriptions pointed to one diagnosis, but physical examination revealed a different condition — or multiple concurrent problems,“ Miller told the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in May.
The bill is now pending before the Ohio House for consideration.
For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It’s free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening.
Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
About the Author
