Lawmakers Send Telemedicine Bill To Governor

INDIANAPOLIS -- Lawmakers in both chambers Tuesday approved a bill that expands Indiana’s “telemedicine” services. 

Telemedicine is health care delivered remotely.  Doctors and patients can use, for instance, videoconferencing instead of a face-to-face appointment.  And lawmakers this session are expanding its use by allowing doctors, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses and optometrists to write some prescriptions via telemedicine. 

They can’t write prescriptions for controlled substances, drugs such as oxycodone and morphine. But some legislators still balked at how far the bill went. Republican Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, the measure’s author, says the final product provided more limitations.

“No vision provider can provide glasses or contacts online via telemedicine,” she said.

The final bill also subjects telemedicine providers located out of the state to Indiana’s laws and jurisdiction. So, if a Hoosier patient sues an Ohio doctor who provided them telemedicine services, that case would go to an Indiana court.