Under proposed regulations approved by the Arkansas State Medical Board, doctors would be allowed to use video and audio technology to remotely treat patients they have never examined in person.
The regulations would allow doctors to establish “a proper physician/patient relationship” through an examination using “real time audio and visual telemedicine technology” as long as the technology “provides information at least equal to such information as would have been obtained by an in-person examination.”
The changes came in response to Act 887 of 2015, which allows doctors to treat only patients they have examined at some point in person, have an ongoing professional or personal relationship with or have been referred by another doctor or when they are filling in for the patient’s regular doctor.
The law also allows the State Medical Board to specify other ways the physician-patient relationship can be established.
Representatives of 15 groups, including the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Trucking Association and America’s Car Mart, wrote a letter to the board stating the regulations “protect the health and safety of Arkansans while expanding access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.”
