Can the pre-treatment exam be done by telehealth in Massachusetts?
Intake · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
The cited rules do not settle this — Massachusetts defines telehealth broadly enough to cover evaluating, diagnosing and prescribing, including audio-only, but no statute sets a pre-treatment exam requirement; that standard sits in Board rules not cited here.
Massachusetts defines telehealth expressly widely: synchronous OR asynchronous audio, video, electronic media or other telecommunications technology — including interactive audio-video, remote patient monitoring devices, audio-only telephone, and online adaptive interviews — used for evaluating, diagnosing, consulting, PRESCRIBING, treating or monitoring a patient. Prescribing is named in the definition, and so is audio-only.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, § 5O(a) · verified Sep 1, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
The rest of what Massachusetts says on this
The Board must allow a physician it licenses to obtain proxy credentialing and privileging for telehealth services with other health care providers or facilities that comply with the federal CMS conditions of participation for telehealth. The statute removes a credentialing obstacle to remote care; it does not lower any clinical standard.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, § 5O(b) · verified Sep 1, 2026
⚠️ Chapter 112 contains no statutory pre-treatment examination requirement — no section imposing a “good faith” or prior examination before a prescription or an injectable, of the kind California writes into § 2242 or Texas into 22 TAC § 169.26. What must actually happen before treatment is set by the Board of Registration in Medicine’s regulations at 243 CMR, which are published only where automated clients are refused. So Massachusetts is answerable here in kind and not in degree: the statute is on record and the clinical standard is not, and we do not guess at it.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112 — section index (surveyed in full) · verified Sep 1, 2026
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