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Crack Down On Cyber Doctors And Their Internet Prescriptions
from the online-medicine-is-for-kooks-only? dept
The State of California has had enough with online doctors prescribing medicine to patients they've never met. They've started to crack down, and have taken away one doctor's license, and levied massive fines against others. The doctor's are fighting back. The ones who were fined (six doctors, fined for a total of $48 million) are saying that since they're not in California, the state has no jurisdiction over them. Meanwhile, the one doctor who had his license revoked (who is in California) insists that he did nothing wrong in reviewing patient files and prescribing medicine online without actually meeting with the patients themselves. It certainly is a fine line, as the opportunities to abuse such a system are probably greater than having to meet with a doctor in real life. However, there probably are plenty of situations where an online doctor could make more sense - and save people lots of money. My guess is that, over time, new (much more strict) regulations will come about for the online practice of medicine, but it may take a while.
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Old Concept
Telemedicine has been discussed since the 1950s. Theoretically, telemedicine could open up opportunities for consumers who could get medical advice from the lowest bidder. By the same token, consumers could also receive useless or harmful advice for which there is no jurisdiction.
One might argue that telemedicine is valid for situations where the patient already knows what medicine to get. However, seemingly innocuous symptoms may be part of a more serious problem the patient hadn't thought of. For that, there is no substitute for being examined in person. Physicians notice more than the patient realizes.
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