Law and Policy in Telemedicine

Legal Publications

• Publications
• Virtual library

Publications

• 2001 Telemedicine Law & Practice: Practical Guidance, Compendium of Federal and State Laws
  A book published by the Civic Research Institute which includes information on: Critical interstate licensing issues; Medical record-keeping; Privacy and confidentiality; Informed consent policies; Fraud and abuse prevention; Risk management techniques; Reimbursement rules; Universal service questions; Emergency treatment requirements; Intellectual property protection; and, Tax ramifications.
• California Telemedicine: A Reimbursement Dilemma
  Report from Feedback Research Services, published May 1998, and updated January & November 1999.
• LegaNet - The Medical Information Technology Law Report
  The latest legal, legislative and regulatory developments affecting the new health care technologies -- and clear, practical guidelines on how to avoid increased liability.
• Telecommunications in An Information Age
  A publication from the US Department of State.
• Telehealth Law
  Focused on Canada, this new newsletter offers exclusive insights into the many applications of technology in the health information and services context - including but not limited to audio/visual linkages between physicians and patients in different locations.
• Telehealth Practice Report
  A comprehensive resource that keeps readers up to date on the quick-changing field of telehealth and telemedicine, new practice issues and related legal questions.
• Telemedicine and e-Health Law
  The scope includes everything from the licensing requirements for physicians who provide medical services electronically across state lines, to the privacy issues raised by the sharing of electronic medical records (EMRs) across computer networks. It also includes chapters on tax, antitrust, intellectual property, and other aspects of e-health.
• Telemedicine: A Medical Liability White Paper
  From the Physicians Insurer's Association of America, the purpose of this report is to investigate and attempt to identify patient safety and professional liability risks that may emerge with the growing prevalence of telemedicine practice.

Virtual library

• 2001 OAT Report to Congress
  Author/editor: OAT
  Date: May 22, 2001
  Includes sections on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, as well as a section on Other Payment Coverage, which briefly describes the state of third party payer coverage for telemedicine.
• A Third Policy Alternative For Licensure of Interstate Telemedicine Revisited
  Author/editor: Shannon Hartsfield
  Date: 1998
  Their proposal, in short, would require a Congressional resolution to be passed that would allow a physician in any state to practice telemedicine while in consultation with a physician licensed in the patient's state. Adobe PDF
• ATA Policy Regarding State Medical Licensure
  Author/editor: not listed
  Date: May 21, 1999
  Position paper from the American Telemedicine Association. Adobe PDF
• Boundaries Hamper Telemedicine
  Author/editor: Allison Connolly
  Date: December 15, 2000
  From the Boston Business Journal, most of the telemedicine business is being done overseas, because there are no national guidelines in the United States to safeguard patients' rights and protect doctors against liability across state lines. And, in most cases, insurance companies don't cover the costs.
• Confidentiality mandate is next major health care hurdle
  Author/editor: Alan Moorse
  Date: March 27, 2000
  From the Capitol District Business Review. The issue at hand is coming into compliance with two sections of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly referred to as HIPAA, that will mandate security measures to preserve the confidentiality of medical records and standardize electronic data interchange (EDI) among providers, insurers and government agencies.
• Draft Model Act to Regulate the Practice of Telemedicine Across State Lines
  This is the text of a memorandum and draft model licensure act proposed by the Federation of State Medical Boards ("FSMB") in August, 1995 and adopted by the FSMB Board in October, 1995.
• Evolving uses of health care on the Internet
  Author/editor: Edward F. Shay, Esq.
  Date: March, 2000
  Growth of health care on the Internet and the application of legal controls to it are largely driven by the commodity nature of the health care activities involved to date. Missing from the phenomenon thus far and critical to its future success is the medical profession. While some surveys purport to demonstrate that physicians are rapidly embracing the Internet, others portray physicians and consumers as wary of the integrity of Internet information and concerned about its reliability.
• Growing pains
  Author/editor: Ellen Carr, RN
  Date: October 26, 2001
  From NurseWeek, faced with reimbursement and licensure restrictions, telemedicine struggles to reach a wider audience.
• Health Information Privacy Protection: Crisis or Common Sense?
  Author/editor: Joanne K. Kumekawa, BA, MBA
  Date: September 30, 2001
  From Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, this paper briefly touches upon new sweeping federal privacy standards mandated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The article outlines who and what is covered under the new rules, considers how practitioners can approach compliance with common sense, addresses concerns related to risk management, discusses consumer health privacy issues, and notes the difficulty of evaluating these rules and regulations. The article also looks at some unique privacy issues facing telemedicine and telehealth practitioners.
• HHS Issues Final Privacy Rule
  Author/editor: not listed
  Date: not listed
  From Arent Fox E-Health News and Alerts, President Clinton announced on December 20, 2000 a sweeping new federal regulation designed to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information contained in a patient’s medical record.
• Legislative developments link more doctors to telemedicine
  Author/editor: Edmundo Conchas
  Date: July 16, 1999
  From the San Antonio Business Journal, a review of telemedicine legislation in Texas.
• Licensing physicians for telehealth practice: Issues and policy options
  Author/editor: Pong, R.W. and J. C. Hogenbirk
  Date: 1999
  The article is posted online with permission from the Health Law Review. Health Law Review 8(1): 3-14. Adobe PDF
• Medicaid and Telemedicine
  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report regarding Medicaid reimbursement for services provided via telemedicine. Includes a list of states reimbursing for telemedicine under Medicaid.
• Medicare Reimbursement for Telehealth Encounters
  Author/editor: Joe Tracy, Thelma McClosky-Armstrong, Rob Sprang, Sam Burgiss, Jim Reid, Donna Hammack
  Date: October 5, 1999
  A position paper. Comments in response to the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 mandate that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) begin reimbursing for select telehealth consultations on January 1, 1999. Adobe PDF
• Physician Licensure: An Update of Trends
  Author/editor: Janice Robertson
  Date: January 2002
  From the American Medical Association (AMA).
• Policy Brief: Telemedicine
  Author/editor: not listed
  Date: January 29, 1999
  Four-page informational papers from the Legislative Budget Office (LBO), vol 1, no 6. Adobe PDF
• Practicing telemedicine and Ohio's new telemedicine licensure law
  Author/editor: Stephen M. McCarty
  Date: May, 2001
  From Health Care Commentaries vol 9 no 4, an overview of Ohio's telemedicine licensure law, which allows an out-of-state physician to provide an in-state physician with a teleconsultation. Adobe PDF
• Private lessons
  Author/editor: Tyler Chin
  Date: March 27, 2000
  From AMNews, a handy guide for the physician who wants to know everything about Internet privacy but is afraid to ask.
• Reimbursing physicians for telehealth practice: Issues and policy options.
  Author/editor: Pong, R.W. and J. C. Hogenbirk
  Date: 2000
  From Health Law Review 9(1): 3-12. The article is posted online with permission from the Health Law Review. Adobe PDF
• Residents press for national doctor licensure
  Author/editor: Jay Greene
  Date: January 3/10, 2000
  From 2000 AMNews, advances in telemedicine and other forms of medical practice that cross state lines warrant a reconsideration of the AMA's resistance to national licensure, residents conclude.
• Securing patient privacy
  Author/editor: Brian Fonseca
  Date: October 2, 2001
  From CNN.com, As medical professionals move their daily practices further and further into the electronic world, so too has the mandate grown to protect the privacy of patient information. U.S. government regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) hold health care facilities responsible for bringing legacy IT systems into stringent compliance and ensuring the security of patient records.
• State telemedicine licensure
  Author/editor: Brad Short
  Date: November 15, 1999
  From the American College of Radiology. A summary of state telemedicine licensure laws.
• Teleconsultation reimbursement changes
  Author/editor: James V. Schuster, Esq.
  Date: November, 1996
  From the Physician's News Digest. Thus far, the federal Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has taken a conservative approach to Medicare reimbursement for telemedicine. Yet, the agency's approach has recently received harsh criticism from members of Congress and the private sector, which may suggest that the time for covering physician telemedicine consultations (teleconsultations) might just be the here and now.
• Telehealth: Are You At Risk?
  Author/editor: Georgia Martin
  Date: 2002
  This article is a brief historical perspective of the evolution of telehealth, barriers to implementation, and current solutions being proposed to regulate telehealth practice. It includes related liability issues, case reviews, and some recommendations to help limit risk. From the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Legal Department.
• Telemedicine and the Law
  Author/editor: Sharon R. Klien, William L. Manning
  Date: Summer, 1995
  Reprinted from Healthcare Information Management: The Journal of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Telemedicine's legal issues fall into three categories: (1) the traditional medico-legal issues not unique to the medium; (2) conflicts in state law, which telemedicine amplifies because it connects geographically separate facilities; and (3) issues unique to telemedicine.
• Telemedicine facilitates practicing across state lines
  Author/editor: Ruth SoRelle
  Date: July 2, 1998
  From the Houston Chronicle, experts in the field of telemedicine said the time has come to consider a national medical license -- not only because of the way licensure affects their field, but because it complicates the practice of medicine in general.
• Telemedicine for the Medicare Population: Executive Summary
  Author/editor: not listed
  Date: February, 2001
  Prepared by the Oregon Health Sciences University Evidence-based Practice Center, this report assesses specific telemedicine study areas, with a focus on those that would substitute for face-to-face medical diagnosis and treatment of the Medicare population. Thus, this report targets face-to-face clinical specialties (as opposed to radiology and pathology) and the Medicare population (adults as opposed to children and pregnant women).
• Telemedicine for the Medicare Population: Pediatric, Obstetric, and Clinician-Indirect Home Interventions: Full Report
  Author/editor: not listed
  Date: February, 2001
  Prepared by the Oregon Health Sciences University Evidence-based Practice Center, this report is a supplement to an earlier evidence report, Telemedicine for the Medicare Population, which was intended to help policymakers weigh the evidence relevant to coverage of telemedicine services under Medicare. The original report focused on telemedicine programs and clinical settings that had been used with or were likely to be applied to Medicare beneficiaries.
• Telemedicine legalities for physicians in PA
  Author/editor: Nancy W. Miller, Esq.
  Date: June, 1999
  From the Physician's News Digest. Telemedicine holds great potential for expanding access to specialty expertise, rapid availability of patient records and reducing the costs of patient care. However, a number of issues related to its further development, including licensure, reimbursement, liability and patient confidentiality, will undoubtedly impact the manner and extent to which physicians utilize it.
• Telemedicine: Follow the Money
  Author/editor: Dena Puskin
  Date: September 30, 2001
  This article traces the development of current Medicare telemedicine payment policies, beginning with the BBA of 1997 and including current Medicare payment legislation. Issues related to telemedicine payment by both Medicare and other third party payers are presented; implications for the future and the role of the nursing community are discussed. From the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.

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Links updated on 5/9/2008 8:43:58 AM