When Texas passed its telemedicine law in May, Teladoc told MobiHealthNews that the passage of the law would functionally end the long lawsuit between Teladoc and the Texas State Medical Board. Last week that became official, as the telemedicine company officially announced the end of the suit.
"Effective today, Teladoc has voluntarily dismissed the longstanding lawsuit in Texas," the company wrote in a statement. "As we have said throughout this process, Teladoc remains steadfast in our commitment to continue to champion and transform access to high quality healthcare. Today we could not be happier with the outcome, and the alignment of the legislators and medical regulators on behalf of the people of Texas."
Teladoc also announced last week that it doubled its number of healthcare provider customers over the last year. Teladoc now serves more than 200 hospitals including Mount Sinai in New York; Jefferson Health in Philadelphia; Mercy Health Network in Des Moines, Iowa; Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Wellspan Health in York, Pennsylvania; and Orlando Health in Orlando.
“Hospitals and health systems are under tremendous operating pressures, particularly as the industry shifts more toward value-based care and they seek to meet the care needs of new populations,” Dr. Alan Roga, president of Teladoc's health system market, said in a statement. “A significant strength and advantage of the Teladoc solution is that it is tailored specifically to support health systems as they expand and innovate their approach to care delivery.”
In other telemedicine news, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a recent speech that ending net neutrality would help telemedicine by allowing telemedicine connections to have priority on the network, resulting in faster speeds. Media Post called that claim "dubious", noting that telemedicine is already one of many exceptions to the FCC's ban on paid prioritization. The American Academy of Pediatricians has also come out against ending net neutrality, as it would harm smaller practices that might not be able to afford to compete with big hospitals on priority internet access.
