- Telemedicine is the combination of the Internet and and telecommunications as a way of providing clinical medical care to patients. This medical treatment is given to patients from a distance, frequently from another state. Since the physician is not physically with the patient, the practice of telemedicine presents various legal barriers.
- Privacy can function as a legal barrier to telemedicine. In practicing telemedicine, there is an electronic transfer of patient medical data and medical records to the physician. As a result, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") is triggered by this exchange of records, as the transfer of medical data must be protected and safeguarded. The health care providers must comply with HIPAA and, in doing so, must take significant action to comply with legal restrictions. As a result, compliance with the law can function as a barrier.
- The licensure of physicians is a regulatory function that is performed by each individual state. However, when a physician engages in telemedicine across state lines by treating a patient in another state, the physician is essentially practicing medicine in another state where the physician may not have a license to practice medicine. This failure to possess a state license to practice medicine in the other state acts as a legal barrier to telemedicine.
- Due to a physician's failure to possess a license in a state where the physician may engage in telemedicine, the physician may be subject to liability for practicing medicine without a license in those states. This liability exposure functions as a legal barrier to the practice of telemedicine.
What is Telemedicine?
Privacy as a Legal Barrier
Licensure as a Legal Barrier
Liability as a Legal Barrier
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