On June 15, 2016, the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Licensure proposed a joint rule to establish standards for telemedicine practice in the state. The proposed rule, once effective, would broadly define telemedicine to include "electronic audio-visual communications and information technologies," including interactive audio with asynchronous store-and-forward transmission, remote monitoring, and real-time interactive services. The rule would hold a licensee using telemedicine to the same standard of care and professional ethics as a licensee conducting traditional in-person encounters with patients. Importantly, the rule would allow a valid physician-patient relationship to be established through telemedicine if the standard of care does not require an in-person encounter, something that is unclear under current Board policies. Specifically, the rule would allow a medical interview and physical examination to occur remotely if the technology utilized "is sufficient to establish an informed diagnosis as though the medical interview and physician examination had been performed in-person." A static internet questionnaire provided to a patient, to which the patient responds with a static set of answers, in contrast to an adaptive, interactive and responsive online interview, is not sufficient.
Comments on the proposed rule were due to the Boards on July 15, 2016. The Boards have 120 days to adopt the rule or, if substantial changes are made based on public comments, initiate another notice-and-comment period.
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