Technology And Trends In The Healthcare Industry, Part I: The Risks And Rewards Of Remote Medicine

Sick days are built in to nearly every workforce. As employers are aware, depending on an employee's position and the duration of his or her time off, sick time may slow production or delay deadlines. On the flip side, employees want to work for employers that empathize with employees' health needs and, further, offer a good benefits package to absorb some healthcare-related costs.

To balance these interests—work productivity, time efficiency, a healthy workforce, and valuable healthcare options—more and more employers are offering telemedicine to their employees as a healthcare benefit.

What Is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine refers to the administration of healthcare through communication and information technology, for example, doctor visits conducted via phone, video, or text messages.. An individual might send his or her dermatologist a photo of a new mole and, after a telephone consultation, receive a diagnosis without having to visit a doctor's office. In addition to offering patients the convenience of seeing doctors without a visit to a doctor's office, telemedicine, by facilitating remote doctor visits, gives patients a larger array of physicians to choose from—since a patient can have an online appointment with a doctor practicing anywhere with an Internet connection.

What Are the Legal Limits and Risks?

Telemedicine has many advantages in addition to some drawbacks and risks. What happens to an employee's texts including his or her medical information after it is texted to a doctor? What if something goes wrong with the patient's medical treatment, but the doctor lives across the country? What are the costs of implementing a telemedicine benefit to the employer? As different states expand regulations on telemedicine to allow patients more remote healthcare options, the legal issues that accompany this benefit have yet to emerge. It is important for employers to understand the risks associated with implementing a telemedicine program before offering this new healthcare option to their employees.

Potential Risks

Some legal risks that cross all jurisdictions include the following:

Venue: If a patient files a claim against a physician based in a different state or country, it is difficult to determine which laws will govern. It could be that the patient's state law will prevail since the care is being provided in that state, but this question remains open.

Medical Malpractice: Some medical malpractice suits boil down to a...