On November 30, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov submitted a comment to the “Delaware Board of Speech/Language Pathologists, Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers” on the state’s proposed regulation to allow telepractice to take place in those fields but also will require an initial in-person evaluation.
The Delaware Division of Public Health has acknowledged the potential for telehealth to mitigate the state’s healthcare access challenges. The state is experiencing shortages in critical healthcare specialists, many health resources are unevenly distributed, plus healthcare is greatly needed in underserved locations in the state.
The FTC’s Office of Policy Planning and the Bureaus of Competition and Economics stated that by allowing licensees to determine whether telepractice is an appropriate level of care could enhance consumer choice by providing an alternative to in-person care.
However, because the proposed regulation does not include evaluations in the definition of telepractice and would require that all initial evaluations be conducted in person, it may unnecessarily discourage the use of telepractice.
The FTC encourages the Board to consider whether the proposed regulation could be improved by broadening the proposed definition of telepractice to include evaluations as this would eliminate the prohibition on conducting initial evaluations by telepractice.
For more information, contact Karen A. Goldman, Office of Policy Planning at 202-326-2574.