Telehealth policies keep on changing every year as states continue to follow their own unique set of telehealth laws. Generally this industry raises quite a number of legal issues especially regarding reimbursement policies, licensure issues and cross-state practice. Currently, one may no practice telehealth across several states unless they acquire the right licensure in each state. However, it won’t be long before health care providers are allowed to practice telehealth across state lines.Telehealth attorneys are well informed about these changing telehealth policies making them offer good advice to people across the industry.
Liability is a major issue in telehealth just like it is in other sphere of medicine. More so, liability issues are prevalent in telehealth due to the nature of the industry. There are a lot of grey areas that present liability pitfalls for providers, making it difficult for them to carry out their jobs with ease.
Overall, liability in telehealth revolves around what a provider can do or say when disbursing their services. In telehealth, providers do not always deal with patients directly. Telehealth facilities such as phones, video conferences, phone apps and online accounts are used instead. This makes it harder for providers to know who they are dealing with all the time.
Telehealth attorneys help tackle this liability issue by defining the liability spectrum for providers. Being a unique field due to its nature of operation, telehealth needs its own custom liability guidelines. These involve: authenticating identities of patients during enrollment, confirming ages of patients beforehand, establishing which patient results are as a result of telehealth and which aren’t, creating policies for underage patients, etc.
In addition to formulating the liability policies that guide how providers work, telehealth attorneys are also key in solving disputes where liability is already an issue. Disputes are likely to emerge between provider and patients where the latter feels they have received inadequate help, or other legal issues. Telehealth attorneys can arbitrate, mediate and also provide litigation support to providers. Best of all, they can formulate policies on how disputes will be handled in an effort to avert negative legal exchanges.
Through the above help, telehealth attorneys can help save the reputation of providers so that they can continue to serve their clients. They can also save telehealth operators from incurring costly liability expenses, expenses that can sink a practice and lead to its closure entirely.