Over the past year, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) have published documents regarding telemedicine that shed some new light on how state regulatory bodies view telemedicine. Taken together, the documents are generally cause for optimism underscoring the trend towards greater acceptance of telemedicine—but there are some notes of caution as well. By way of quick background, the FSMB represents 70 state medical and osteopathic boards and helps support member boards around the country. The ATA is the largest telemedicine-focused trade association made up of industry leaders and health care stakeholders.
FSMB Survey
According to a survey report issued in December 2016, telemedicine is currently the most important regulatory topic to state medical boards. The survey was completed by 57 of the 70 medical and osteopathic medical boards in the country. Interestingly, 75 percent of boards chose telemedicine in their survey responses as one of the most important topics “making it the topic impacting the largest number of boards.” Seventy percent chose resources regarding opioid prescription. The five most important issues were:
- Telemedicine;
- Opioid prescribing (resources related to);
- Physician licensure compact;
- Physician re-entry to practice; and
- Medical marijuana.
Surprising in these survey results is the degree to which telemedicine continues to be top of mind for state boards despite the slew of state activity that generally facilitates greater use of telemedicine (discussed more below in the ATA Gaps Report section). A reasonable explanation is that despite all the recent progress in law and policy, many state boards continue to be uneasy about telemedicine. What that ultimately means for the industry will bear watching. Continue reading…