We understand that telemedicine is evolving and understandably state medical boards and doctors are cautious about telemedicine in general and may have concerns about direct to consumer telemedicine in particular. At the same time, patients increasingly expect more as the status quo of increased wait times and decreased access to affordable care is no longer acceptable to many Americans. We therefore appreciate the opportunity to engage and have active productive conversations with state regulators and medical boards to ensure we provide residents in each state with high quality care.
We are committed to operating in every state in a way that’s regulatory compliant. We provide video consultations in all states for clinical services that might result in a prescription for an antibiotic as we believe video meets the standard of care in these clinical situations. In other clinical situations, we believe the standard of care can be met with an asynchronous store-and-forward format, whereby the patient answers a structured and dynamic intake form. In states that require synchronous live video via regulation / laws / guidance, regardless of clinical situation, we only use video.
In both cases of live video or asynchronous store-and-forward format, either the Lemonaid Health team or the patient can engage and communicate via secure messaging.
The core regulatory challenge for the Lemonaid Health team is it’s not always clear what each state requires. The reason is that either the law isn’t clear because it has room for interpretation, or the law doesn’t speak to the key issues. In addition, within a single state we might experience differing views among members of a single state regulator, or experience reluctance from state regulators to give clear guidance. This makes the expectations and requirements less clear. With the technology platform our team has created, the good news is once we have a clear understanding of what’s required in a state, we can implement it overnight.
