2011 Hawaii Code
DIVISION 2. BUSINESS
TITLE25. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS
453. Medicine and Surgery
§453-1.3 Practice of telemedicine.

[§453-1.3] Practice of telemedicine. (a) Nothing in this section shall preclude any physician acting within the scope of the physician's license to practice from practicing telemedicine as defined in this section.

(b) For the purposes of this section, "telemedicine" means the use of telecommunications services, including real-time video or web conferencing communication or secure web-based communication to establish a physician-patient relationship, to evaluate a patient, or to treat a patient. "Telehealth" as used in chapters 431, 432, and 432D, includes "telemedicine" as defined in this section.

(c) Telemedicine services shall include a documented patient evaluation, including history and a discussion of physical symptoms adequate to establish a diagnosis and to identify underlying conditions or contra-indications to the treatment recommended or provided.

(d) Treatment recommendations made via telemedicine, including issuing a prescription via electronic means, shall be held to the same standards of appropriate practice as those in traditional physician-patient settings that do not include a face-to-face visit but in which prescribing is appropriate, including on-call telephone encounters and encounters for which a follow-up visit is arranged. Issuing a prescription based solely on an online questionnaire is not treatment for the purposes of this section and does not constitute an acceptable standard of care. For the purposes of prescribing a controlled substance, a physician-patient relationship shall be established pursuant to chapter 329.

(e) All medical reports resulting from telemedicine services are part of a patient's health record and shall be made available to the patient. Patient medical records shall be maintained in compliance with all applicable state and federal requirements including privacy requirements.

(f) A physician shall not use telemedicine to establish a physician-patient relationship with a patient in this State without a license to practice medicine in Hawaii. Once a provider-patient relationship is established, a patient or physician licensed in this State may use telemedicine for any purpose, including consultation with a medical provider licensed in another state, authorized by this section, or as otherwise provided by law. [L 2009, c 20, §2]