Texas Telehealth Bill Could Resolve Teladoc Suit

Policy (CCHP), a project of the nonprofit Public Health Institute. Republican State Sens. Charles Schwertner and Charles Perry introduced the legislation Monday. SB-1107 removes a requirement that patient and physicians must first meet face to face. It provides new definitions for telehealth service, telemedicine and store-and-forward technology. While CCHP doesn’t take a position on the bill, Gutierrez emailed that the measure “seeks to better define different forms of virtual care, though there is no mention of remote patient monitoring, which can be beneficial for monitoring chronic diseases wherever the patient may be.” Cooperation among stakeholders produced the bill, Texas e-Health Alliance Executive Director Nora Belcher told us. “Last legislative session, there were over a dozen telemedicine bills filed in Texas that didn't pass, because it was clear that there was no consensus among the stakeholders about what approach to take,” she emailed. “My organization partnered with the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Academy of Family Physicians during the interim to convene a working group of all the major stakeholders to work through the issues, and this bill is the result.” SB-1107 “will guarantee a free, open and competitive market for all kinds of telemedicine in Texas,” she said. The bill lets Texans “access a new, state-of-the-art option for their medical care, while also protecting patient safety and ensuring the accepted standard of care is maintained,” Schwertner said in a news release. Teladoc praised introduction of the Texas bill. Arkansas last week signed a telehealth measure into law (see 1702210014).