Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and reimbursement in telemedicine

Telemedicine has real potential to improve the availability of services and advice of medical specialists to primary care practitioners and their patients. Use of the term "telemedicine" for the purposes of this article will refer to two-way, interactive video systems over which medical consultation takes place. This does not include the use of telecommunications technology to transport still images, particularly radiologic images, from one site to another. We are quite aware that teleradiology and telepathology is already in common use in many sites. We are currently exploring the question of quality standards for teleradiology in addition to other forms of telemedicine.