12 Alaska Admin. Code § 40.943

Current through May 31, 2024

Section 12 AAC 40.943 - Standards of practice for telemedicine

(a) The guiding principles for telemedicine practice in the American Medical Association (AMA), Report 7 of the Council on Medical Service (A-14), Coverage of and Payment for Telemedicine, dated 2014, and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), Model Policy for the Appropriate Use of Telemedicine Technologies in the Practice of Medicine, dated April 2014, are adopted by reference as the standards of practice when providing treatment, rendering a diagnosis, prescribing, dispensing, or administering a prescription or controlled substance without first conducting an in-person physical examination under AS 08.64.364.

(b) During a disaster emergency declared by the governor, an appropriate licensed health care provider need not be present with the patient to assist a physician or physician assistant with examination, diagnosis, and treatment if the physician or physician assistant is prescribing, dispensing, or administering buprenorphine to initiate treatment for opioid use disorder and the physician or physician assistant

(1) is a waived practitioner under 21 U.S.C 823(g)(2) (Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA));

(2) documents all attempts to conduct a physical examination under AS 08.64.364(b) and the reason why the examination cannot be performed; and

(3) requires urine or oral toxicology screening as part of the patient's medication adherence plan.

12 AAC 40.943

Eff. 10/8/2017, Register 224; am 5/5/2020, Register 234; am 9/20/2020, Register 235;

A copy of Report 7 of the Council on Medical Service (A-14), Coverage of and Payment for Telemedicine, adopted by reference in 12 AAC 40.943, may be obtained from the American Medical Association, AMA Plaza, 330 N. Wabash Ave. Suite 39300, Chicago, IL 60611-5885, or on the association's Internet website at https://www.ama-assn.org/about-us/council-medical-service-reports. A copy of the Model Policy for the Appropriate Use of Telemedicine Technologies in the Practice of Medicine, adopted by reference in 12 AAC 40.943, may be obtained from the Federation of State Medical Boards, 400 Fuller Wiser Road, Euless, TX 76039, or on the federation's Internet website at https://www.fsmb.org/policy/advocacy-policy/policydocuments.

The State Medical Board originally adopted 12 AAC 40.943(b) by emergency action on April 30, 2020. Those emergency regulations were filed and took effect May 5, 2020, with an expiration date of September 1, 2020 under AS 44.62.260. Owing in part to confusion about whether AS 44.62.260 or a governor's disaster declaration under AS 26.23.020 set the duration of the emergency regulations, the State Medical Board proposed a minor amendment to add "or oral" after "urine" in 12 AAC 40.9433(b)(3) to the emergency regulations. On May 7, 2020, the board adopted that charge with the rest of 12 AAC 40.943(b) as a single set or emergency regulations, and issued a supplemental public notice under AS 44.62.190 stating that the board intended to make the emergency regulations permanent. So that all the emergency regulations would have a single effective date, and thus a single expiration date if not made permanent, the regulations attorney requested that the lieutenant governor's office file the regulations with the original May 5, 2020 effective date.

Authority:

AS 08.64.100

AS 08.64.101

AS 08.64.364