The Policy Committee of the North Carolina Medical Board is considering several revisions to its telemedicine policy that would allow providers to rely more on their own judgment in deciding whether a telemedicine consult is sufficient for diagnosis and/or prescribing medication.
The proposed revisions maintain the Board's original position that telemedicine care will be held to the same standards as in-person care. However, the changes would allow the evaluation that precedes diagnosis or treatment to be conducted remotely if the provider is able to conduct a remote consult on-par with an in-person examination.
Under the proposed changes to the prescription guidelines, providers would be able to issue prescriptions if the provider is able to obtain the "threshold information" required to make an accurate diagnosis. This is a change from the original guidelines that necessitated in-person examinations prior to prescribing outside of on-call and similar scenarios, and gives providers latitude on using telemedicine to prescribe medication.
More articles on telemedicine:
Leveraging mHealth to reduce hospital readmissions
Anthem, UnitedHealthcare offer telemedicine coverage in Nevada
Telemonitoring reduces readmissions by 44%, increases ROI, finds Geisinger study