I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 691 
To promote the provision of telehealth by establishing a Federal standard 
for telehealth, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 3, 2015 
Ms. MATSUI (for herself and Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To promote the provision of telehealth by establishing a 
Federal standard for telehealth, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Telehealth Moderniza-
tion Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Telehealth technologies can transform 
health care delivery by improving access to quality 
care by removing traditional barriers to health care 
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delivery such as distance, mobility, and time con-
straints. 
(2) Telehealth is a mode of delivering health 
care utilizing information and communication tech-
nologies to enable the diagnosis, consultation, treat-
ment, and care management of patients by health 
care providers. 
(3) The use of information and telecommuni-
cation technologies to deliver health care has the po-
tential to reduce costs, improve quality, change con-
ditions of practice, and improve access to health 
care, particularly in rural and medically underserved 
areas. 
(4) A lack of primary care providers, specialty 
providers, and transportation continues to be a sig-
nificant barrier to access to health care in medically 
underserved rural and urban areas. 
(5) Parts of the Nation have difficulty attract-
ing and retaining health care professionals, as well 
as supporting local health facilities to provide a con-
tinuum of health care. 
(6) Many health care providers in medically un-
derserved areas are isolated from mentors, col-
leagues, and the information resources necessary to 
support them personally and professionally. 
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(7) A patchwork of State regulatory environ-
ments poses legal and regulatory hurdles that are in-
hibiting the proliferation of private-sector telehealth 
innovations and have created significant uncertainty 
for the telehealth community. 
(8) As of June 2013, 40 out of 50 States have 
introduced legislation addressing telehealth policy, 
with wide variations in how telehealth is defined. 
(9) To help clarify this uncertainty and provide 
States with appropriate guidance, Congress should 
provide a workable Federal definition of telehealth 
that ensures the highest common denominator of 
care while facilitating future innovation. 
(10) The fundamental health care provider-pa-
tient relationship cannot only be preserved through 
a Federal definition of telehealth, but also can be es-
tablished, augmented, and enhanced through the use 
of telehealth. 
SEC. 3. FEDERAL STANDARD FOR TELEHEALTH. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—If a State authorizes a health care 
professional to deliver health care to an individual, the 
State should also authorize the health care professional 
to deliver such health care to such individual through tele-
health, subject to the conditions specified in subsection 
(b). 
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(b) CONDITIONS.—The following are conditions for 
the delivery of health care through telehealth by a health 
care professional to an individual that States should con-
sider adopting: 
(1) ACCESSIBILITY AND REVIEW OF MEDICAL 
HISTORY.—The health care professional should have 
access to the medical history of the individual, and 
should review such medical history with the indi-
vidual, to the same extent that the health care pro-
fessional would have access to such medical history 
and would review such medical history if delivering 
the health care in person. 
(2) IDENTIFICATION
OF
UNDERLYING
CONDI-
TIONS
AND
CONTRAINDICATIONS.—To the extent 
practicable, the health care professional should at-
tempt to identify the conditions underlying the 
symptoms, if any, reported by the individual before 
such professional provides any diagnosis or treat-
ment to the individual. In the case that the health 
care professional recommends a treatment to the in-
dividual, the health care professional should review 
with the individual the contraindications to the rec-
ommended treatment. 
(3) DIAGNOSIS.—Subject to the professional 
discretion of the health care professional, such pro-
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fessional should have a conversation with the indi-
vidual adequate to establish any diagnosis rendered. 
(4) 
DOCUMENT
EVALUATION, 
MEDICAL 
RECORDS, AND PROVISION OF MEDICAL INFORMA-
TION.—The health care professional should docu-
ment the evaluation and treatment delivered to the 
individual, if any, for the purpose of generating a 
medical record of the encounter. At the option of the 
individual, the health care professional should— 
(A) provide the individual with medical in-
formation, in standard medical record format, 
about such evaluation and treatment; and 
(B) send any documentation concerning 
such evaluation and treatment to one or more 
selected health care professionals responsible 
for the care of the individual. 
(5) TRANSPARENCY REGARDING PROFESSIONAL 
CREDENTIALS.—At the option of the individual, the 
health care professional should provide to the indi-
vidual, in electronic and paper format, information 
regarding the health care education, certification, 
and credentials of the health care professional. 
(6) NO
ASSURANCE
CONCERNING
ITEMS
OR 
SERVICES.—The health care professional should 
offer no assurance to the individual that any item or 
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service, including a prescription, will be issued or 
provided— 
(A) in exchange for the payment of the 
consultation fee charged by the health care pro-
fessional; or 
(B) solely in response to the individual 
completing a form or questionnaire. 
(7) PRESCRIPTION REQUIREMENTS.—Any pre-
scription issued by the health care professional as 
part of the health care delivered to the individual 
should meet the following requirements: 
(A) The prescription is issued for a legiti-
mate medical purpose in the usual course of 
professional practice. 
(B) The prescription is issued by a health 
care professional who has obtained a medical 
history and conducted an evaluation of the indi-
vidual to whom such prescription is issued ade-
quate to establish a diagnosis. 
(C) The prescription is not for a drug or 
substance in schedule II, III, or IV of section 
202(c) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
U.S.C. 812(c)). 
(D) The prescription is filled by an appro-
priately licensed dispensing entity. 
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(c) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to— 
(1) change the application of the HIPAA pri-
vacy regulation (as defined in section 1180(b)(3) of 
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–9(b)(3))) 
with respect to a health care professional’s provision 
of telehealth; or 
(2) affect the standard of care for medical or 
clinical appropriateness as established by State law 
or policy. 
(d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 
(1) 
TELEHEALTH.—The 
term 
‘‘telehealth’’ 
means, with respect to health care that a health care 
professional is authorized to deliver to an individual 
in person under State law, such health care delivered 
by such health care professional to such individual 
not in person, from any location to any other loca-
tion, and by means of real-time video, secure chat or 
secure email, or integrated telephony. 
(2) HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL.—The term 
‘‘health care professional’’ means, with respect to 
health care, a physician or practitioner who is au-
thorized under law to deliver such health care in per-
son. 
Æ 
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