Robert Sprang, MBA

Rob has been the Director of Kentucky TeleCare, the telehealth program based at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center since September 1996. Active in state and federal telehealth policy initiatives, he is a former Board member and a past President of the Board of Directors for the Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law (CTeL) in Washington, DC, the preeminent organization in the field of telehealth and e-health legal and regulatory research and advocacy.

Rob was primarily responsible for organizing the advocacy that led to the Kentucky TeleHealth Network legislative language that was passed in the 2000 Kentucky Legislative session. That legislation was the catalyst that expanded telehealth from a UK-centric program to a statewide telehealth initiative. Upon adoption of the bill, Kentucky became the first state to legislatively mandate reimbursement by Medicaid and commercial health plans for telehealth encounters. Kentucky’s mature telehealth infrastructure and expansive telehealth expertise allowed the Commonwealth’s healthcare system to function at a high level, when patients chose to remain home, seeking care via telehealth technology while not risking exposure to the COVID 19 pandemic.