The telemedicine stars at night–and day–are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. Over the weekend, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 1107 which ended the requirement that a physician-patient relationship had to be established offline before a telemedicine visit could take place. MedCityNews  The Texas House earlier this month passed House Bill 2697 permitting direct-to-consumer virtual doctor visits, followed by the concurrent bill SB 1107 in the Senate. JD Supra (Jones Day), Modern Healthcare

The new legislation allows for previously prohibited initial care via telemedicine (versus in person), asynchronous “store-and-forward” typically used for data and images or other such audiovisual technology so long as it complies with rules that ensure safety and quality. The bill’s terms were negotiated between the Texas Medical Association, the Texas eHealth Alliance, and Teladoc. It also effectively ends the long-running, six-year standoff between Teladoc and the Texas State Medical Board, and the shutout of other providers such as American Well.

Both rivals cheered the good news on, which was timed beautifully for Teladoc’s 1st Quarter earnings call on May 9, adding to record-high visits, plus healthy revenue and membership increases. While it has many internationally known medical centers, Texas is a huge state and is notoriously short of primary care physicians, with 71.4 primary care physicians per 100,000 people and 46th among all the states for primary care physicians per capita.

There is one aspect of the bill that ensures further legal challenge, which is the language prohibiting the use of telemedicine to prescribe abortion-inducing medication as it does in 20 other states. Mobihealthnews. Further background in March article