New Florida Bills Target Tele-Dental Care

USA: State Senator Jim Boyd has filed SB 356 in an effort to improve the quality of dental care received via telehealth in Florida. Boyd stated that he filed the bill as Florida dentists are being forced to treat patients who have developed problems after ordering dental devices online without proper oversight.

The bill would require telehealth dental providers to work with a “dentist of record” who will remain primarily responsible for all dental treatment of the patient. The dentist could be disciplined or lose their licenses if they fail to review the patient’s most recent diagnostic images before a diagnosis and correction of teeth alignment or initial use of an orthodontic appliance.

The review must be conducted in person or through the patient’s records within the last six months.

“This is where people are ordering treatments online without the oversight of a doctor or a dentist and getting those appliances to put on their teeth. Sometimes they work. But oftentimes, we are seeing more and more, the dentists in their practices around the state are having these people come in with problems that they then have to try to correct.”

Florida State Senator Jim Boyd

New Disclaimers for Tele-Dental Providers

The bill also requires telehealth dental providers who advertise to add new disclaimers. Providers who work with impressions of teeth or jaw or who supply prosthetic dentures, bridges or appliances must include the disclaimer that an in-person examination with a licensed dentist is recommended to prevent injury or harm.

The bill requires every licensed dentist to provide their patients with their name, telephone number, after-hours contact information for emergencies, and license information upon request.

The same requirements apply to individuals, partnerships, corporations, and other entities that provide dental services through telehealth. Telehealth dental providers must also provide license information of each dentist who provides services to the patient upon request.

“Presumably, if you are in telehealth, you are talking with a licensed medical professional,” said Boyd, who denied the problems he is trying to fix are occurring because of telehealth.

“This is not really that. This is where people are ordering treatments online without the oversight of a doctor or a dentist and getting those appliances to put on their teeth. Sometimes they work. But oftentimes, we are seeing more and more, the dentists in their practices around the state are having these people come in with problems that they then have to try to correct.”

Similar Bill in the House of Representatives

A similar bill, HB 503, has been filed in the House of Representatives by Rep. Kim Berfield and has been referred to the House Health Care Regulation, Health Care Appropriations, and Health & Human Services committees. At press time, two lobbyists from the American Association of Orthodontists were registered to lobby the bill.

Senator Boyd has also filed SB 298, a telehealth bill that would allow telephones to be used in the delivery of telehealth services. The bill was not accepted last year by the House, but Boyd believes it will help rural areas that may not have access to video conferencing technology. Rep. Tom Fabricio has filed the companion bill, HB 267.