Can the pre-treatment exam be done by telehealth in Rhode Island?
Intake · part of The Practice Perimeter
RHODE ISLAND ALLOWS THE REMOTE VISIT, REFUSES TO LOWER THE BAR, AND THEN RULES OUT TWO SHORTCUTS BY NAME. “Treatment and consultation recommendations made in an online setting, including issuing a prescription via electronic means, will be held to the same standards of appropriate practice as those in face-to-face settings.” ⛔ THE QUESTIONNAIRE IS NOT AN EXAM: “treatment, including issuing a prescription, based solely on an online questionnaire without an appropriate evaluation does not constitute an acceptable standard of care and is considered unprofessional conduct.” ⛔ AND NEITHER IS STORE-AND-FORWARD ON ITS OWN: “Asynchronous evaluation of a patient, without contemporaneous real-time, interactive exchange between the physician and patient, is not appropriate.” The rule sits inside the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline’s unprofessional-conduct section, so the consequence of getting it wrong is a disciplinary one.
216-RICR-40-05-1 § 1.5.9(H)(2) (Licensure and Discipline of Physicians — telemedicine standard of care) · verified Sep 8, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
The rest of what Rhode Island says on this
Every other rule we have verified under good-faith examination, each linked to its primary source.
Unprofessional conduct includes incompetent, negligent, or willful misconduct in the practice of medicine, which includes the rendering of medically unnecessary services, and any departure from, or the failure to conform to, the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice in his or her area of expertise as is determined by the board. The board does not need to establish actual injury to the patient in order to adjudge a physician or limited registrant guilty of the unacceptable medical practice in this subsection.
R.I. Gen. Laws §5-37-5.1(19) · verified Sep 3, 2026
Unprofessional conduct includes offering, undertaking, or agreeing to cure or treat disease by a secret method, procedure, treatment, or medicine.
R.I. Gen. Laws §5-37-5.1(17) · verified Sep 3, 2026
Unprofessional conduct includes making willful misrepresentations in treatments.
R.I. Gen. Laws §5-37-5.1(14) · verified Sep 3, 2026
Unprofessional conduct includes failing to furnish details of a patient's medical record to succeeding physicians, healthcare facility, or other healthcare providers upon proper request pursuant to §5-37.3-4.
R.I. Gen. Laws §5-37-5.1(10) · verified Sep 3, 2026
AND THE PART DEFINES THE MODALITY BY BORROWING THE INSURANCE TITLE’S DEFINITION, WHICH PUTS THE ASSESSMENT AND THE DIAGNOSIS INSIDE IT. “Telemedicine” means, as defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-81-3, the delivery of clinical healthcare services by real time, two-way synchronous audio, video or telephone-audio-only communications and other telecommunications technology, including online adaptive interviews, remote patient monitoring and store-and-forward technology, and the enumerated purposes it facilitates are “assessment, diagnosis, counseling” and prescribing treatment and “care management of a patient’s healthcare while such patient is at an originating site and the healthcare provider is at a distant site”. ⛔ THE RICR REPRINT CARRIES ITS OWN TYPOGRAPHICAL SLIPS (“devises”, “healthcare deliver”) WHERE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S TEXT DOES NOT; the words above are quoted as this Part prints them. It excludes the low-touch channels outright: “Telemedicine does not include an email message or facsimile transmission between the provider and patient, or an automated computer program used to diagnose and/or treat ocular or refractive conditions.”
216-RICR-40-05-1 § 1.2(A)(25) (Licensure and Discipline of Physicians — “Telemedicine” defined) · verified Sep 8, 2026
How other states answer this
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← All Rhode Island rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference, not legal, medical, or compliance advice. Verify against the linked primary source and consult qualified counsel before acting — rules change and turn on your specific facts. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).