Is an exam required before a patient can be treated in Vermont?

Short answer
Yes — a Vermont-licensed provider may prescribe, dispense, or administer drugs or give treatment recommendations only after an appropriate exam, in person or by telemedicine; signing a blank or undated prescription form is unprofessional conduct.

Vermont requires an appropriate examination of the patient — in person, through telemedicine, or by instrumentation and diagnostic equipment through which images and records may be transmitted — before a licensed health care provider prescribes, dispenses or administers drugs, and holds treatment recommendations made electronically to the same standards of appropriate practice as those in traditional provider-patient settings. The rest of what these claims establish is narrower: signing a blank or undated prescription form is unprofessional conduct, as is prescribing, selling, administering, distributing, ordering or dispensing a controlled substance for the licensee’s own use or for an immediate family member. Separately, the Board may require a licensee to submit to a mental or physical examination and an evaluation of medical knowledge and skill where it has a reasonable basis to doubt competence.