A year after Texas imposed controversial restrictions on the practice of telemedicine — prompting a lawsuit from Teladoc, which has its operational base in Dallas — many of the warring parties apparently want peace.
The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit media organization in Austin, reported that a number of healthcare and business groups in the state held a closed-door meeting Tuesday about “modernizing our telemedicine statutes and reducing the regulatory footprint governing the provision of telemedicine services.” The groups hope to forge a compromise to submit to the Texas Legislature.
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Don’t expect any immediate actions, as lawmakers are out of session until next year. The participating groups do hope to have a deal by the end of summer though, according to the Texas Tribune.
While the negotiations are in the early stage, the meeting is a sign of a “thawing of tensions” between physicians and telemedicine companies, the head of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians told the Texas Tribune. Teladoc had a representative at the meeting, but didn’t comment for the story.
The Texas e-Health Alliance, representing health IT interests, did. “What we used to be fighting about is, ‘What can technology do?’” Texas eHealth Alliance Executive Director Nora Belcher was quoted as saying. “Now we’re talking about what technology should do.”
Teladoc remains embroiled in a federal lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board. The state agency last year banned physicians from making diagnoses or prescribing drugs over the telephone or Internet for any patient they do not have a existing, in-person relationship with.
The board continues to defend its decision.
