TELEMEDICINE CASE STUDY

Prescriptive Jurisdiction

Medical Licensing Statutes --

1. States require regular contact for jurisdiction (Indiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota)

Indiana Code 25-22.5-1-1.1(a) (4) (as amended 1996, 1997): As used in this article, the practice of Medicine or osteopathic medicine means one or a combination of the following . . . Providing diagnostic or treatment services: (A) that are transmitted through electronic communications; and (B) are on a regular, routine, and non-episodic basis or under an oral or written agreement to regularly provide medical services. . . . A nonresident physician who is located outside Indiana does not practice medicine or osteopathy in Indiana by providing a second option to a licensee or diagnostic or treatment services to a patient in Indiana following medical care originally provided to the patient while outside Indiana.

2. States do not require regular contact (Nevada, Texas)

Texas Revised Civil Statutes, Article 4495b, §3.06(i) (1995): A person who is physically located in another jurisdiction but who, through the use of any medium, including an electronic medium, performs an act that is part of a patient care service initiated in this state, including the taking of an X-ray examination or the preparation of pathological material for examination, and that would affect the diagnosis or treatment of the patient, is engaged in the practice of medicine in this state for the purposes of this act, and is subject to this Act and appropriate regulation by the Board. This subsection does not apply to: (1) the acts of a medical specialist located in another jurisdiction who provides only episodic consultation services on request to a person licensed in this state who practices in the same medical specialty; (2) the acts of a physician located in another jurisdiction who is providing consultation services to a medical school; or (3) the acts of a physician located in another jurisdiction who is providing consultation services to an [educational] institution [other than a medical school].

3. States do not provide for telemedicine

Next