Telemedicine Project - Essay Example

TELEMEDICINE PROJECT School: Lecturer: TELEMEDICINE PROJECT Topic Requirements and criteria needed to practice telemedicine The American Telemedicine Association specifies that before any organization or individual would practice or use telecommunication equipment in the delivery of healthcare, that organization or individual must fulfill the requirement of providing a set of Standard Operating Procedures or Protocols that spells out the administrative, clinical and technical specifications of the project (AmericanTelemed, 2013).

In effect, the requirement needed is the standard operating procedures or protocols, which must contain the criteria being spelled out in terms of the administrative, clinical and technical specifications. On the specifications, there are very specific demands that the outfit seeking to go into telemedicine must provide. Examples of these specifications include i. Availability of appropriate staff to meet patient and provider needsii. Awareness of enhance requirement for privacy confidentiality to patients and their information.iii. Billing and coding processes to secure all payment informationiv.

Processes for the documentation, storage and retrieval of telemedicine information v. Observation of high degree of patient rightsvi. An annually updated documented policies and procedures to address administrative, clinical and technical components of telemedicinevii. Availability of quality improvement and performance management process (American Telemedicine Association, 2009).Once an outfit is ready to provide all of these requirements and meet the criteria spelt above, it can be considered for the practice of telemedicine.

Generally, these requirements are in place, given the fact that they help in ensuring that there is the standardization of practice in a manner that protects and guides the interest and needs of patients and the general public (USPMC, 2002). They are also in place to ensure that the execution of telecommunication is done in a manner that can guarantee the safety of service providers (Zur, 2014).Topic 2: Law and Regulation in the United StatesWhereas there are requirements and criteria to identify what people and organizations must have in place in order to practice telemedicine in the U.

S, there are also laws and regulations that control the practice of telemedicine after all requirements have been met and practice has been set rolling (APA., 2011). Overall, there about 10 areas of legal and regulations areas that are focused on in the U.S. These include i. Licensure and Scope of Practiceii. Federal Fraud and Abuse: Anti-Kickback Statuteiii. Federal Fraud and Abuse: Stark Lawiv. Federal Fraud and Abuse: False Claims Actv. Food and Drug Administration and State Regulationsvi.

Privacy, Confidentiality and Securityvii. Online Prescribing and Telepharmacyviii. Antitrustix. Medical Malpractice and Liabilityx. References and Additional ResourcesUnder each of these areas, the Center for Telehealth and E-Health Law, the Federation of State Medical Boards, and the Federal Office for the Advancement of Telehealth ensures that there are separate legal provisions provided to service providers to ensure that they provide service practice that are in line and in accordance with the fundamental legal protection of both patients and the health service.

In terms of licensure, the regulation ensures that people have the right license to operate before they do so. All regulations on fraud seek to protect the public against any cases and incidence of fraud. The food and drug administration regulations and also ensures that the provision of any form of medicine is valid and safe. Issues on security also ensure that there is maximum guarantee on the privacy and confidentiality of service users (Telehealth Resource Center, 2013).ReferencesAmerican Telemedicine Association (2009).

Practice and Guidelines for Videoconferencing based Telemental Health. Retrieved April 17, 2014 from http://www.americantelemed.org/docs/default-source/standards/practice-guidelines-for-videoconferencing-based-telemental-health.pdf?sfvrsn=6AmericanTelemed, (2013) “State Telemedicine Policy Center”. Retrieved April 16, 2014 from http://www.americantelemed.org/policy/state-telemedicine-policy#.UyYkIdxztG4APA., (2011). “Telepsychology 50 state review”. Retrieved April 16, 2014 from http://www.

apapracticecentral.org/advocacy/state/telehealth-slides.pdfTelehealth Resource Center, (2013). “Telehealth Legal and Regulatory Module”. Retrieved April 16, 2014 from http://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/legal-regulatoryUSPMC, (2002). “Systematic review of cost effectiveness studies of telemedicine interventions”. Retrieved April 16, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC115857/ Zur, O., (2014). “State by state Telehealth Regulations”. Retrieved April 16, 2014 from http://www.

zurinstitute.com/telehealthlaws.html