Telehealth/Telemedicine continues to be SUPER HOT topic with new legislation.

Telehealth continues to be a super hot topic of state and federal legislatures. Texas, for example, recently joined the rest of the states in no longer requiring initial in-person visits before being able to provide telehealth services.

The Texas legislature enacted the major telehealth bill SB 1107 on May 19, 2017, and the governor signed the bill into law shortly thereafter on May 27, 2017. As reported in our prior post, Texas had considered that, if passed, this telehealth bill would allow patient-physician relationships to be established via telemedicine without requiring an initial in-person visit. Prior guidance from Texas Medical Board required an in-person physician-patient interaction before a visit via telehealth, specifically in prescribing medication. The Texas Medical Board’s telemedicine FAQs are being revised as a result of this enacted law.

This law’s enactment would also effectively bring to an end the years long battle between a telehealth provider and Texas Medical Board. In 2015, a telehealth provider brought legal action against the Texas Medical Board and its telehealth restrictions. This litigation was twice stayed to allow for such a resolution to occur.

Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission was investigating the Texas Medical Board for possible antitrust violations due to its guidance that restricted the practice of telemedicine and telehealth in Texas. However, on June 21, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it will close its investigation into the Texas Medical Board as a result of the Texas legislatures enacting the law that overrode the board’s telehealth restrictions.

This Texas telehealth law is important because of the large telehealth market that Texas represents. The passage of this law removes the hurdle to allow telehealth providers to start operating or expand operations in the state with the second largest population in the nation.

We continue to track the progress of bills in state and federal legislatures. 

Here’s a new demo video presentation: FruitStreet Demo Presentation.

Here is a slide presentation of our technology(click this link).

Below is an overview of the platform:

Provider Portal

• Manage Patient information and easily manage your Telehealth/Telemedicine practice
• Create Patient Portal access areas that your patients can access 24/7
• Monitor Patient wearable Device Data(Fitbit, iHealth Labs)
• Create the types of services and consultations you want to offer
• Set your own hours of practice and availability and patients can schedule online
• 100% HIPAA compliant Video Teleconferencing Sessions and Instant messaging/text
• Keep detailed patient data and session notes
• Built-in Credit Card processing through Stripe.com
• Individually customize Patient Portal by uploading Lab Reports and Educational information
• Set Goals for Patients
• Custom Branded with your logo for your practice

Patient Portal

• Offer your Patients, Clients, Members a private password protected access point of communication to offer HIPAA compliant Video Teleconferencing Sessions.
• Interact with HIPAA compliant text chat
• Share files and documents- individually customizable
• Automatically synchronizes wearable devices(Fitbit, iHealth Labs) to monitor data
• Accept payments via Stripe.com
• Allow for scheduling of appointments with online scheduler
• Goals Tab for Provider set goals
• Intuitive dashboard for ease of operation

Mobile Application

• Available for Android on the Google Play store
• Available for Apple on the iTunes Store
• Free App for Patients
• HIPAA compliant Video & Text Chat
• Use mobile device camera to upload images to Patient Portal
• Schedule Appointments/Visits
• View Goals and Wearable Device Data

Wearable Device Integration

• Wearable Device data automatically synchronizes with Patient Portal of patient and stores historical data to monitor health, goals and progress.
• Fitbit & iHealth Labs wirelessly sync with platform with more devices being added.

 Unlimited training and customer support for Providers and Patients for lifetime of subscription included. Real-time online chat tech support built into platform for providers and all of your patients/clients. For more information, please email: sales@fruitstreet.com