Doctors would be allowed to use video and audio technology to remotely treat patients they have never examined in person under proposed regulations unanimously approved by the Arkansas State Medical Board on Thursday.
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."
Such physicians would also have to be licensed in Arkansas, and they would not be allowed to prescribe certain pain medications without performing an in-person examination. The regulations still need final approval by the Arkansas Legislative Council.
Board Chairman Joseph Beck said the regulations would provide greater access to doctors for Arkansans in rural areas without jeopardizing their safety.
"There's enough protection here to where I believe the board can feel comfortable that the patients are being protected, which is our No. 1 job," Beck said.
The regulations 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.
An earlier version of the proposed regulations drew objections from some legislators, including Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, who said doctors might miss symptoms during a videoconference that they would catch during an in-person exam.
Bledsoe, who sponsored Act 887, on Thursday called the proposed regulations "a good compromise."
During a visit to the board after the hearing, Gov. Asa Hutchinson also praised the regulations.
"I think you all achieved a good balance there, and it's a good step forward," he said.
The board of the Arkansas Medical Society, which represents about 4,000 physicians and medical students, voted in April to support the regulations, David Wroten, the society's executive vice president, said in a letter to the State Medical Board.
Representatives of 15 other groups, including the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Trucking Association and America's Car Mart, said in a June 8 letter to the board that the regulations "protect the health and safety of Arkansans while expanding access to affordable, high-quality healthcare."
However, the groups said they remain concerned about a requirement in Act 887 that patients be in the offices of a health care professional or health care facility in order to be treated via telemedicine.
The groups said they are also concerned about the regulations' "narrow definition of acceptable technologies that diminish opportunity and stifle innovative efforts to bring care to every corner of the state," but understand "the Board has to work within the current statutory framework."
Charlene Kakimoto, a San Diego-based dermatologist who was licensed by the board on Thursday, said her practice model, which she described as an online service focusing on anti-aging and acne treatments, isn't allowed in Arkansas now but would be under the proposed regulations.
Metro on 06/10/2016