Our readers have many things which keep them up at night, including that extra taco, but René Quashie of leading healthcare/life sciences law firm Epstein Becker Green adds a few more to the list. While muddling telemedicine (remote consults) with telehealth (vital signs tracking and monitoring), he outlines the legal pitfalls (and consequences) that both are facing: non-compliance with state prescribing and licensure laws (physical examination requirements); lack of highly developed protocols and guidelines (liability exposure); lack of greater coverage and reimbursement by payers (low credibility=low/no pay); HIPAA compliance in privacy and security (lack of protection against unauthorized data access). However, how many of these have already experienced accomodation by state regulators, or have started to modify to follow regulations? Awake yet? This is only Part 1. Things That Should Keep the Telehealth Community Awake at Night (Part 1) (TechHealth Perspectives/EBG blog) Hat tip to reader Ellen Fink-Samnick of Ellen’s Ethical Lens.
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As a supplier and developer of telehealth and telecare solutions I believe there are ‘codes of conduct’ being worked up on both an EU and a global compliance basis that are being fairly well contributed to in order to fall in line with existing compliance on practice, ethics and even technology protocols. It is difficult for commercial organisations to dictate best practice but as the nature of the industry is assistive to users there is a common goal amongst ethically established companies. I have found integration, joint development and innovative collaborations to be great ways to enhance products and services for the greater good.