| (a) All physicians that use telemedicine medical services in their practices shall adopt protocols to prevent fraud and abuse through the use of telemedicine medical services. These standards must be consistent with those established by the Health and Human Services Commission pursuant to §531.02161 of the Government Code. (b) In order to establish that a physician has made a good faith effort in the physician's practice to prevent fraud and abuse through the use of telemedicine medical services, the physician must implement written protocols that address the following: (1) authentication and authorization of users; (2) authentication of the origin of information; (3) the prevention of unauthorized access to the system or information; (4) system security, including the integrity of information that is collected, program integrity, and system integrity; (5) maintenance of documentation about system and information usage; (6) information storage, maintenance, and transmission; and (7) synchronization and verification of patient profile data. |
