Is an online telemedicine or telehealth service legal?The answer, of course, depends on the intersection of the following laws:

• licensing
• informed consent principles (legal and ethical)
• ethical constraints in a given profession (such as medicine, psychology, psychiatry, or counseling)
• professional discipline
• general liability principles
• regulation of telemedicine and telehealth by state
• insurance issues including insurance fraud, billing and coding, Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, fee-splitting, kickback law and Stark, health care fraud, and so on
• malpractice liability
• informed consent principles (legal and ethical)

Generally most licensing statutes remain relatively unchanged since the late nineteenth century, the statutes control business use of technologies including the internet when it comes to health care practices.

There is fine line between merely giving information on the Internet regarding generic health care conditions, which is legally permissible, and giving information tailored to a specific patient, which can be considered “diagnosis” and “treatment” of a medical condition.

There is also a sliding scale between medical information and claims on one hand, and generic research, literature, and health advice on the other.

Many telemedicine providers obliterate the line and thus run afoul of current law and regulation, although regulators have not yet caught up and many fly under the radar.

Others are hoping for technology to push the boundaries of what is legally permissible.

There are several associations and organizations dedicated to telemedicine and telehealth, but getting free advice on legal issues can lead to taking a dangerous legal position and later facing lawsuits or criminal charges if that position is unsupportable.  It’s sort of like deciding to wire your home based on reading a book about electricity and getting advice from a friend who is an electrician.  Not advisable.

Telemedicine attorneys with experience in FDA matters, guide doctors involved in delivery of health care, group medical and private  medical practice, who are concerned  about issues at the interface of  federal and state law, concerned  about medical board discipline or  medical malpractice liability  issues.  Telemedicine attorneys also review and draft informed consent forms and guide clients concerning a variety of health care law issues.

Consulting an experienced attorney who knows complementary medicine for legal advice regarding telemedicine is highly encouraged.

If you are looking for a good telemedicine Attorney, you should have the following qualification:

• qualified in business structure and entity formation
• practitioner licensing matters
• health care facility licensing issues (home health agency, hospice, imaging center
• copyright and trademark licensing
• Cosmetic claim and labeling
• Medical device FDA legal issues
• Insurance reimbursement and Medicare issues for healthcare practioners
• Telemedicine legal, m-health and digital health law among many other qualifications

Whether the attorney is advising start-ups or experienced companies, they should bring their entrepreneurial spirit and caring insights to tailor make cutting-edge legal advice to their clients.