Dive Brief:
- The American Medical Association's House of Delegates will vote next week on new ethical telemedicine guidelines set by the group's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.
- Some of the telemedicine recommendations include advising physicians be proficient in telehealth technologies and how to arrange any required follow-up care, as well as making sure patients know the limitations of services provided.
- The Chicago meeting comes at a time when most large health insurers are widening their coverage of telehealth, such as UnitedHealth Group, which recently announced it will be expanding access to 20 million beneficiaries within the next year.
Dive Insight:
Few are questioning the growth of telehealth—the market is expected to grow to $1.9 billion by 2018, according to an Ernest & Young report, due to fewer physicians and more patients—but regulatory barriers continue to hamper expansion efforts. States have been unable to come to a consensus about what constitutes an appropriate patient-physician relationship in a telemedicine setting. Ethics guidelines like these, while not harmful, don't stand to affect a lot of change absent that definition.
"In any model of care, patients need to be able to trust that physicians will place patient welfare above other interests, provide competent care, provide information patients need to make well-considered decisions about care, respect patient privacy and confidentiality, and take steps to ensure continuity of care," the AMA ethics council wrote in a report released prior to the upcoming meeting.