Commentary: issues and perspectives affecting CRNA practice. Regulation of health professionals, Part 1: Telepractice

Although the requirement to protect the public welfare and safety is a right guaranteed to the states by the US Constitution's 10th amendment, which grants states the "police powers" of government, it is not an absolute power. The Commerce clause of the Constitution limits the power of states in creating barriers to intrastate commerce. Changes in the health care delivery system of the US, such as the use of corporate models such as managed care entities and health maintenance organizations, as well as health insurers' development of utilization reviews before approval of reimbursable procedures in individual cases, has prompted concerns with regard to the care of patients occurring outside the state in which the patient resides, by health care professionals not licensed in that state. Many states have considered such decision making an "unauthorized practice of medicine, or other practice" creating the necessity for some providers to obtain an many as 20 licenses to cover their practice. The practice of telemedicine (or telenursing or telehealth) falls into this quagmire, and thus efforts are ongoing to try to find ways to permit such practices while maintaining quality control, with or without additional state licenses.