Telemedicine: Current Trends and Emerging Legal Risks

Protecting Patient Privacy, Avoiding Fraud and Abuse Liability, Ensuring Quality of Care

***CMS Will Pay for Some Telemedicine Services Beginning Jan. 1***

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A

Conducted on Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Course Materials

Description

The past few years have witnessed an increase in hospitals and providers' adoption of telemedicine programs. However, the laws governing telemedicine are developing slowly. Although states vary widely in how they regulate telemedicine, the legal risks of telemedicine are universal.

On July 16, Congress passed H.R. 6331, expanding Medicare coverage beginning January 1, 2009, to include skilled nursing facilities, in-hospital dialysis centers and community mental health centers as telemedicine sites. This will further increase the prevalence of the telemedicine practice.

As hospitals and providers continue to "practice medicine at a distance," legal concerns abound — how can telemedicine providers reduce their exposure to malpractice claims? How does HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) impact the sharing of electronic medical records? What fraud and abuse risks arise from telemedicine?

Listen from your telephone as our panel of healthcare attorneys identifies the major legal risks and potential liabilities associated with telemedicine programs and offers their experiences and best practices to avoid litigation and penalties.

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Outline

  1. Telemedicine update — current trends
    1. New technologies
    2. Legislative initiatives
    3. Globalization of telemedicine
  2. Privacy and security risks and best practices to minimize liability
    1. HIPAA
    2. Electronic transmission of protected health information
    3. System crashes
  3. Reimbursement and physician involvement issues

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key questions:

  • What new trends are developing in the field of telemedicine?
  • How can providers effectively balance the need to access patient information electronically with HIPAA's patient privacy and information security requirements?
  • What telemedicine practices give rise to potential fraud and abuse concerns?

Faculty

Deborah A. Randall
Deborah A. Randall
Partner
Arent Fox

She focuses on regulatory, reimbursement, corporate and compliance issues for health providers. She advises clients on...  |  Read More

Cheryl S. Camin
Cheryl S. Camin
Fulbright & Jaworski

She focuses on fraud and abuse, illegal remuneration, referrals, HIPAA and Stark law as each relates to the...  |  Read More

Access Anytime, Anywhere

Strafford will process CLE credit for one person on each recording. All formats include course handouts.

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