The Georgia Composite Medical Board recently finalized a new amendment to its telemedicine practice standards. The purpose of the amendment was to address the use of technology as it relates to telemedicine, and clarify the Board’s position on the use of peripherals when conducting a patient examination via telemedicine. The amendment is effective September 28, 2020.

The Board made a slight change to Georgia Rules and Regulations Section 360-3-.07(3)(d) (“Practice Through Electronic or Other Such Means”), which enumerates three scenarios when a Georgia-licensed physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse, may provide services via telemedicine without conducting a prior in-person examination. Under the revised rule, a Georgia-licensed practitioner can offer treatment and/or consultation recommendations via telemedicine if the practitioner is “able to examine the patient using technology or peripherals that are equal or superior to an examination done personally by a provider within that provider’s standard of care.”

The previous language of the rule used the phrase “technology and peripherals,” whereas the new language clarifies the practitioner can use technology or peripherals to conduct the patient examination. Practitioners must continue to adhere to the other requirements of the rule, and the applicable standard of care.

Georgia’s telemedicine rule was originally adopted in 2014, and established the minimum standards of practice while providing treatment and/or consultation recommendations through the use of telemedicine.