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Attorneys Gear Up for Virtual Medicine

By Tresa Baldas
August 01, 2006

The number of doctors and hospitals making virtual house calls has exploded in recent years, which has lawyers cautioning the medical community about the legal dangers of treating and monitoring patients via the Internet. Attorneys warn that virtual medicine ' which has popped up in hospitals and clinics in more than a dozen states in the last 2 years ' could open the floodgates to malpractice claims, privacy disputes and licensure problems.

'My concern is that this would open up lawsuits,' said attorney Brett C. Powell of Hicks & Kneale in Miami, who handles malpractice appeals for doctors and plaintiffs. 'I can foresee a claim down the road where the patients are claiming negligence for failing to recognize a situation. With these virtual house calls … you could say not only did he not have an adequate examination, but he didn't even see me.'

Lawyers' concerns stem not only from the increase in doctors participating in virtual medicine, but by the growing number of insurance carriers that have been willing to pay for online visits. For example, starting this July, some Cigna HealthCare members in California were able to conduct online doctors' visits, a service that will also be available next year to members in New York, Florida and Arizona. And some insurers have already started reimbursing doctors for online visits.

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