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Distant Site Telemedicine Credentialing Conditions

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Reliance On Distant-Site Hospital or Telemedicine Entity Credentialing

Reliance On Distant Site for Telemedicine Credentialing

The 2011 CMS regulation modified conditions of the participation for hospitals and critical access hospitals to permit the hospital to have its medical staff rely on the distant-site hospital credentialing decisions when making recommendations on privileges for individual physicians and practitioners providing telemedicine services. However, this process is only permitted when a number of conditions are met:

  • The telemedicine services must be provided pursuant to a written agreement with the Medicare participating distant-site hospital or qualifying distant-site telemedicine entity.
  • The agreement must specify that it is the responsibility of the governing body of the distant-site hospital to meet the existing requirements for credentialing of providers who are providing telemedicine service.
  • The distant-site hospital providing the telemedicine services must be another Medicare participating hospital or a “telemedicine entity.”
  • The distant-site physician or other practitioner must have been privileged at the distant-site hospital providing telemedicine services and the distant-site hospital must provide a current list of telemedicine physicians and practitioners who are privileged there and their current privileges at the distant-site hospital or entity to the hospital or CAH.
  • The distance site practitioner must hold a license that is recognized by the state in which the hospital whose patients are receiving telemedicine services is located
  • The hospital must have evidence of an internal review of the distant-site physician’s or practitioner’s performance under telemedicine privileges and must send this information to the distance site hospital for use in the distant-site hospital’s periodic appraisal of the distant-site physician’s provision of telemedicine services.
  • Information sent for use in the periodic appraisal must at a minimum have included all adverse events that resulted or could have resulted from telemedicine services provided by the distance site provider to the originating hospital’s patients and all complaints received by the originating hospital with respect to the distance site physician or practitioner.

John H. Fisher

Health Care Counsel
Ruder Ware, L.L.S.C.
500 First Street, Suite 8000
P.O. Box 8050
Wausau, WI 54402-8050

Tel 715.845.4336
Fax 715.845.2718

Ruder Ware is a member of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide

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