GLOSSARY · VISITS
Patient-provider relationship, when someone legally becomes a patient.
The patient-provider relationship is a legal relationship that begins when a licensed provider evaluates a patient, and it gives the provider a duty to treat that patient to the standard of care.
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What it means
State law decides how the relationship can be formed by telehealth. Many states allow it through a real-time video visit. Some accept an asynchronous review if the provider has enough information to meet the standard of care. Others require audio and video for new patients, or bar prescribing based on an online questionnaire alone. The rules can differ by profession and by the drug being prescribed.
Once formed, the relationship carries lasting duties: follow-up, access to records, continuity of care, and a proper handoff if the provider or clinic stops treating the patient.
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Why it matters to a brand operator
This rule decides what a brand's funnel can look like in each state. A checkout-to-prescription flow that is lawful in one state may need a video step in another, and a brand that ignores the difference ends up with prescriptions a regulator can call invalid.
It also decides who the patient belongs to. The relationship is with the provider and the practice, so the entity that holds the practice and its records holds the patients. For a brand, ownership of that entity is the real question.
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How Tessic Health handles it
Providers on Tessic Health are credentialed under the client's brand, and the practice and its records sit in a structure drafted for the client's ownership, so the patient relationships the clinic builds stay with the client.
See the published termsRELATED TERMS
Words that come up next.
Standard of care
Standard of care is a legal benchmark that defines what a reasonably careful provider in the same field would do for a patient in similar circumstances.
Synchronous visit
A synchronous visit is a telehealth appointment that happens in real time, with the patient and provider connected at the same moment by video or phone.
Asynchronous care
Asynchronous care is a telehealth model that lets a patient and a provider exchange information at different times, so a treatment decision can be made without a live call.
Informed consent
Informed consent is a clinical and legal process that makes sure a patient understands a treatment's risks, benefits, and alternatives before agreeing to it.