How should a doctor explain the potential limits of telemedicine to a patient? And what's the best way to advise patients how to get follow-up care?
These are among the questions American Medical Association members are targeting as they look to strengthen the standards set at last year's meeting for doctors using the technology. This time, they're focusing on patient engagement.
“As the public becomes increasingly fluent in utilizing novel technologies in all aspects of daily life, evolving applications in healthcare are altering the contours of when, where and how patients and patients and physicians engage with one another,” the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs wrote in a recent report. “In any model of care, patients need to be able to trust that physicians will place patient welfare above other interests, provide competent care, provide the information patients need to make well-considered decisions about care, respect patient privacy and confidentiality and take steps to ensure continuity of care.”
[See also: AMA: Make mHealth part of a better EHR]
The ethics council is set to advise the AMA's House of Delegates during a June 6-10 conference in Chicago, during which the group will vote on a new telemedicine policy that will become part of the AMA's lobbying agenda.
The meeting follows an impassioned keynote by AMA President Robert M. Wah, MD, at this year's HIMSS15 Conference and Exhibition in which he outlined the organization's plan for embracing digital health.
At its meeting last year, the AMA targeted standards of care, developing an eight-page list of principles that defined a "valid patient-physician relationship." Before any of these approaches are used, the organization said, the physician and patient must have a "face-to-face" visit – which could be done in person or via video – to establish the parameters of a telehealth relationship. In addition, the AMA said, the physician must advise the patient of "cost-sharing responsibilities and limitations in drugs that can be prescribed via telemedicine."
The association also recommended that doctors using telemedicine be licensed in the state in which their patients receive treatment.
"These principles aim to support future innovation in the use of telemedicine, while ensuring patient safety, quality of care and the privacy of patient information, as well as protecting the patient-physician relationship and promoting improved care coordination and communication with medical homes," the AMA wrote in its executive summary. "Before physicians provide any telemedicine service, they should verify that their medical liability insurance policy covers telemedicine services, including telemedicine services provided across state lines if applicable."
See also:
Unveiling telehealth for physicians
Interstate telehealth licensing compact set to become reality
