In April of this year, the Texas Medical Board adopted rules intended to expand the practice of telemedicine. The rules allow a physician to provide services to a new patient in certain circumstances, and therefore form a physician-patient relationship, using telemedicine. Further, once a physician-patient relationship has been formed, patients may be treated from their homes for up to one year for a preexisting condition that has been previously evaluated. According to the Board, the only situation that is intended to be prohibited is one in which a physician treats an unknown patient using telemedicine without objective diagnostic data and without the ability to follow up with the patient.
Despite the Board’s intent, or intended perception, that the new rules will expand the practice of telemedicine, many opponents claim that the Board is causing regression by limiting patient access to physicians. Earlier this year, Teladoc, Inc., a Dallas-based national telemedicine provider with a history of contending such Board limitation, filed an antitrust suit against the Texas Medical Board alleging that the Board members’ intent in promulgating the new rule is to stifle competition in order to protect brick-and-mortar physicians and their offices. As a result of the litigation, Teladoc received a temporary injunction on the enactment and enforcement of the new rules during the pendency of the lawsuit. Many issues surrounding the future of telemedicine and its role in the provision of healthcare will likely be affected by this lawsuit.
Check back with Frier Levitt for updates on this case that is sure to change the landscape for telemedicine. Contact us if your medical practice or pharmacy is interested in developing and incorporating a telemedicine business model, as clearly, the practice of telemedicine, or acceptance of prescriptions generated through telemedicine, is subject to an ever-evolving, complex maze of State and Federal laws and regulations.
