Cost-Containment

Local officials can impose a benefits requirement only if a big "benchmark plan" adopts it voluntarily.

"These bills are a significant step forward to make sure that when your family needs care, you can get it," Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said.

The new campaign shows the system as the "fox guarding the hen house."

"Much more work is needed to understand telemedicine's longer-term effects on quality of care, health outcomes and spending, and whether those effects differ across the diverse populations who depend on it," said Dr. Katherine Kahn of the UCLA medical school.

Only 33% of the doctors surveyed by the American Medical Association agreed that a voluntary federal effort to improve the reviews will help.

The Patients Before Monopolies Act bill has returned with a bipartisan list of supporters in both the House and the Senate.