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Telehealth rules in Arkansas

Arkansas writes its telemedicine law as a gate rather than a standard. A professional relationship has to exist before a distant-site clinician may use telemedicine at all, and the statute names what cannot create one: an internet questionnaire, an email, a history the patient typed out, a text message, a fax. What does open the gate is a live audio and video encounter, an earlier in-person examination, or access to a health record another clinician already keeps.

Book a DemoAll states
First visit
Async with conditions
Physician license
Own license; compact pending
Controlled drugs
No scheduled drugs without exam
Nurse practitioners
Reduced practice

Rules checked September 2026 · 19 sources cited

ONLY IN ARKANSAS

What is different about Arkansas

Each rule here is true of Arkansas and of none of the states that border it. Beside each one: what the neighbours do instead.

  1. 01 · Practice

    Remote group therapy stops at eighteen

    Ark. Code 17-80-404 allows group therapy by telemedicine for adults where the federal program approval covers it, then closes the format for young people: telemedicine shall not be used for group therapy provided to a child who is eighteen years of age or younger. The limit follows the format rather than the diagnosis, so an adolescent group stays closed however carefully the session is staffed.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-404

    Across the border

    • Missouri

      Missouri sets no age limit on a remote group and moves in the opposite direction on the patient's end of the call, freeing the site where the patient sits from keeping clinical staff on hand.

      Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. 191.1145

    • Tennessee

      Tennessee leaves the session format alone and aims its telehealth-specific limit at a drug, allowing buprenorphine to be prescribed remotely only through licensed treatment entities named in statute.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Tennessee

    • Mississippi

      Mississippi regulates the modality instead of the roster, treating stored images and forwarded files as something that may strengthen a live encounter and never substitute for one.

      Source: 30 Miss. Code R. 2635-5.5

    • Louisiana

      Louisiana singles out conditions rather than ages, with board rules restricting remote treatment of chronic pain and of obesity unless the board grants a written exception.

      Source: LAC 46:XLV.7513

    • Texas

      Texas spends its attention on younger patients in the school setting and on a parent's authorization, while its signature telemedicine duty is the treatment record that reaches a primary care physician within seventy-two hours.

      Source: Tex. Occ. Code 111.005

    • Oklahoma

      Oklahoma answers the question about children with a consent form rather than a format ban, and its medical assistance rules list what a parent's written authorization has to name.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Oklahoma

  2. 02 · First visit

    The law names what cannot start care

    Ark. Code 17-80-403 stops a distant-site professional from using telemedicine here until a professional relationship exists, and the definition behind it refuses to count an internet questionnaire, an email, a patient-generated medical history, a text message, a fax, or any combination of those. Two carve-outs survive the rule: an emergency where the patient's life or health is in danger, and general information that is not tailored to one individual.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-403

    Across the border

    • Missouri

      Missouri travels the other way, letting a reviewed questionnaire carry an encounter where the treating professional is employed by or contracted with a health care entity licensed in that state.

      Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. 191.1146

    • Tennessee

      Tennessee handles the same worry through discipline instead of definition, treating a prescription written off a form, with no appropriate history or examination behind it, as a ground for board action.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Tennessee

    • Mississippi

      Mississippi answers with a modality requirement, asking for a live visit by video, or by audio where that is clinically appropriate, before treatment starts at all.

      Source: 30 Miss. Code R. 2635-5.5

    • Louisiana

      Louisiana lets telehealth form the relationship and then conditions the prescription, demanding an in-person history or examination before any controlled substance and a face-to-face visit inside the past year.

      Source: LAC 46:XLV.7513

    • Texas

      Texas puts its accepted routes in statute, one of them being store-and-forward backed by clinically relevant images or the patient's own records, so a documented asynchronous first contact works there.

      Source: Tex. Occ. Code 111.005

    • Oklahoma

      Oklahoma requires the first examination to run over interactive real-time audio and video, removing the asynchronous option outright instead of listing the media that fail.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Oklahoma

  3. 03 · Practice

    The visit note goes to the family doctor

    Arkansas State Medical Board Rule 38 makes the encounter record travel by default. The physician keeps a full record, gives the patient an electronic or paper copy on request, and forwards the record to the patient's regular treating physician unless the patient declines. Nothing turns on the patient asking for it and no deadline is set, so the duty runs on an opt-out rather than on consent.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

    Across the border

    • Missouri

      Missouri triggers its report off the paperwork instead of the visit, requiring a written report to the primary care provider within fourteen days only where a patient questionnaire carried the encounter.

      Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. 191.1146

    • Tennessee

      Tennessee has no equivalent forwarding default and directs its telehealth-specific attention at which treatment entities may handle particular drugs remotely.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Tennessee

    • Mississippi

      Mississippi's record duty follows from the live-visit rule, since the documentation has to show a real-time interaction took place rather than show that a copy went anywhere.

      Source: 30 Miss. Code R. 2635-5.5

    • Louisiana

      Louisiana keeps its record rule passive, holding remote documentation to in-person standards and making it obtainable by the patient or a referring physician within a reasonable period on request.

      Source: LAC 46:XLV.7509

    • Texas

      Texas runs the same idea on consent and a clock, sending the primary care physician a record or report of the treatment and diagnosis within seventy-two hours where the patient agrees to it.

      Source: Tex. Occ. Code 111.005

    • Oklahoma

      Oklahoma writes its record duty around security rather than distribution, asking that telemedicine records stay confidential and compliant in the physician's own keeping.

      Source: Okla. Stat. tit. 59, 478.1

  4. 04 · Licenses

    The compact is passed but not open

    Every professional treating a patient located here is fully licensed or certified in the state and answerable to the relevant state board. The interstate physician compact has been enacted, but the state board is still onboarding and no license has issued through it, so the expedited route that the surrounding states rely on is not yet available. Applicants go through the ordinary board process and the state's centralized credentials verification service.

    Source: Arkansas State Medical Board

    Across the border

    • Missouri

      Missouri issues through the physician compact already, and separately lets an outside doctor advise without a license where the work is unpaid, occasional or requested by a local physician.

      Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. 191.1145

    • Tennessee

      Tennessee is an issuing compact member, so a physician whose principal license sits in another state reaches patients there on an expedited application rather than a standing start.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Tennessee

    • Mississippi

      Mississippi issues compact licenses and pairs that openness on credentials with a tight rule on method, since the encounter itself still has to be live.

      Source: 30 Miss. Code R. 2635-5.5

    • Louisiana

      Louisiana runs two doors at once, taking compact applicants and also granting its own telemedicine permit to a physician who holds an unrestricted license somewhere else.

      Source: LAC 46:XLV.7509

    • Texas

      Texas takes compact files through its medical board, which means an applicant holding a principal license elsewhere adds the state without rebuilding the whole credentialing packet.

      Source: Tex. Occ. Code 111.005

    • Oklahoma

      Oklahoma issues compact licenses too, and outside that route it offers no waiver and no permit, so its own credential remains the single way in.

      Source: Okla. Stat. tit. 59, 478.1

PRACTICE RULES

How telehealth works in Arkansas

Three documents do the work: the Telemedicine Act in title 17, the medical board's own Rule 38, and the insurance code definition that decides when a phone call counts. They agree on the important thing, which is that the relationship comes first and the technology comes second.

  1. 01

    Licensed here, wherever the clinician sits

    A healthcare professional providing telemedicine to a patient located in the state is fully licensed or certified to practice in the state and is bound by the rules of the board that issued that credential. Out-of-state providers offering only episodic consultation are the exception.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-404

  2. 02

    The patient's home is a proper site

    The originating site is wherever the patient receives the service, and the statute names the home of a patient inside that definition. The distant site is simply where the professional is sitting, which removes any argument about clinic-only delivery.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-402

  3. 03

    A phone call needs to earn its place

    Audio-only communication falls outside the coverage definition of telemedicine unless it is real-time and interactive and substantially meets what the covered service requires, with the problem, the conversation, the decision-making and the plan of care written into the record.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Arkansas

  4. 04

    Say who the clinician is up front

    Rule 38 asks that services be delivered transparently, including giving the patient access in advance to information identifying the physician. The same rule expects a protocol for referring an emergency and for arranging follow-up care where it is clinically indicated.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

FIRST VISIT

Can a first visit happen without a live call in Arkansas?

Yes, with conditions

Only on conditions. The relationship has to be in place before any telemedicine service, and no form, message or fax can create it. A real-time audio and video encounter can, where the standard of care does not call for an in-person visit, and so can access to a health record that another clinician maintains.

This is the section that decides whether an intake-first product works here at all. The statute does not grade the quality of an online form; it removes the form from the list of things capable of creating a relationship, which is a harder problem to design around.

  1. 01

    Seven routes, written into the definition

    The definition recognizes a prior in-person examination with follow-up available, ongoing personal knowledge of the patient's health status, a consultation or referral arrangement, on-call or cross-coverage duty, medical board rules, another licensing board's rules, and access to the patient's health record used with appropriate technology and documentation.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-402

  2. 02

    The records route is real

    Where a provider has access to the personal health record kept by another clinician, that provider may diagnose, treat and, where it is clinically appropriate, prescribe a drug that is not a controlled substance. It is the one route that does not need a live encounter first.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Arkansas

  3. 03

    Only two situations skip the gate

    An emergency in which the patient's life or health is in danger or imminent danger releases the requirement, and so does giving out general health information that is not tailored to any individual. Everything else waits for a relationship.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-403

  4. 04

    Regulation 2.8 sits under Rule 38

    The board adds its own requirement on top, providing that a patient and provider relationship is established in accordance with Regulation 2.8 before services are delivered by telemedicine, and that an online medical history on its own does not create one.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

PRESCRIBING

Prescriptions and controlled drugs in Arkansas

Non-controlled prescribing follows the relationship, so once the gate is open the ordinary standard of care governs. Controlled substances are a separate question, and the board's answer is close to a flat bar for anyone starting from a remote first contact.

  1. 01

    Scheduled drugs need a face-to-face history

    A physician working by telemedicine may not prescribe anything in Schedules II through V unless that physician has examined the patient in person, or the relationship arrived through consultation or referral, through on-call or cross-coverage duty, or through an ongoing professional connection. Every schedule is caught, not a named list of drugs.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

  2. 02

    Take responsibility for the care given

    Rule 38 asks the prescriber to obtain a detailed explanation of the complaint from the patient or the patient's treating physician, to accept responsibility for the care provided, and to see the patient or make a referral where an in-person evaluation becomes necessary.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

  3. 03

    The monitoring program covers four schedules

    Dispensing data for Schedules II through V is reported to the state program, prescribers and their delegates hold accounts, and the program rules direct a check when an opioid in Schedule II or Schedule III is being prescribed.

    Source: Arkansas Department of Health: monitoring program

  4. 04

    A cannabis certification is not a remote act

    A physician may not issue a written medical marijuana certification from an assessment carried out by telemedicine, and audio-only contact cannot be used to renew a certification that was already issued.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

  5. 05

    The federal conditions still bind

    The federal registration and the federal telemedicine conditions for controlled substances apply on top of all of this. Where the two differ the stricter one governs, and on scheduled drugs started remotely the stricter one is the state's.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Arkansas

Federal rules apply on top of every state's. Prescribing controlled substances by telehealth without an in-person visit runs on DEA flexibilities currently extended through December 31, 2026, with a permanent rule still pending.

LICENSES

Who can treat patients in Arkansas

Licensing is conservative and the compact has not yet changed that. What a brand feels first is the breadth of the practice definition: reading an image from another state and acting on it is treated as practicing medicine here.

  1. 01

    Reading an image counts as practicing

    A physician located elsewhere who uses electronic media to perform an act that originates in the state and bears on a diagnosis or a treatment, expressly including the reading of an X-ray, is practicing medicine here and falls under the state board.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-95-206

  2. 02

    A short list of exemptions

    The carve-outs are narrow and specific: episodic consultation, consultation given to a medical school, coverage decisions made for an insurer or health plan, services that are not available inside the state, and a patient the physician sees physically in another jurisdiction.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-95-206

  3. 03

    Nurse practitioners begin under agreement

    A certified nurse practitioner prescribes under a collaborative practice agreement with a physician and may apply for full independent practice authority after 6,240 hours of practice under that agreement. The certificate is renewed every three years and a credentialing committee reviews applications quarterly.

    Source: Arkansas Department of Health: full independent practice

  4. 04

    Each profession answers to its own board

    The Telemedicine Act points back to the rules of whichever licensing board issued the credential, so a counselor, a therapist, a nurse and a physician working for the same brand are each governed by a different rulebook on the same encounter.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-404

How Tessic Health's providers are licensed in Arkansas

ADVERTISING

Marketing to patients in Arkansas

There is no comprehensive consumer privacy act here, so marketing answers to the deceptive trade practices statute, to the board's transparency duty, and to the plain fact that some formats cannot be offered at all.

  1. 01

    A catch-all for deceptive claims

    Ark. Code 4-88-107 lists twelve prohibited practices and closes with a catch-all covering any other unconscionable, false or deceptive act or practice in business, commerce or trade. A separate item reaches conduct that takes advantage of a consumer's physical infirmity or ignorance.

    Source: Ark. Code 4-88-107

  2. 02

    The clinician is named before the sale

    Because the board expects information identifying the physician to be available in advance, a funnel that keeps the treating clinician anonymous until after payment sits badly with the rule that governs the service being sold.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

  3. 03

    Do not advertise a closed format

    A remote group program aimed at teenagers cannot be marketed here, because the format itself is prohibited for anyone eighteen or younger. The marketing constraint follows the service constraint exactly.

    Source: Ark. Code 17-80-404

  4. 04

    No promise of a scheduled drug from a form

    Creative that implies a controlled substance can be obtained by filling in an online questionnaire describes something the board's rule does not permit, and the exposure lands on the prescriber's license as well as on the brand.

    Source: Ark. State Medical Board Rule 38

TESSIC HEALTH IN ARKANSAS

How Tessic Health's providers cover Arkansas

Because the statute removes the online form from the list of things that can create a relationship, the product design here starts with the live encounter and treats intake as preparation for it rather than as a substitute.

  1. 01

    Video opens the chart

    A patient here meets a clinician over real-time audio and video before anything is prescribed, unless the clinician already holds access to a health record kept by another provider, which is the one alternative the definition allows.

  2. 02

    Scheduled drugs are not started from a screen

    No prescription in Schedules II through V is written for a patient here on the strength of a remote first contact. Those requests go to an in-person examination or to a clinician who already holds the relationship.

  3. 03

    The note leaves for the family doctor

    The encounter record is forwarded to the patient's regular treating physician unless the patient declines, and the patient is given an electronic or paper copy of the same record whenever they ask for one.

  4. 04

    Adults only in a remote group

    Group sessions delivered into the state are offered to adults, because the statute closes the format for anyone eighteen or younger regardless of how the session is supervised.

  5. 05

    Who fills the prescription

    Medication reaches a patient here through pharmacies licensed to dispense into the state, priced with no markup added by Tessic Health, and anything temperature-sensitive travels under cold chain the whole way.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about telehealth in Arkansas

  • No. An internet questionnaire, an email, a history written by the patient, a text message and a fax are all excluded from the definition of a professional relationship, alone or in combination. Something else has to create the relationship before telemedicine is used.

  • Yes, where the standard of care does not require an in-person encounter. A real-time audio and video visit is one of the recognized ways to establish the relationship, and the board expects the same standard of care as an office visit.

  • Not from a cold start. The board bars a telemedicine prescription in Schedules II through V unless the prescriber has examined the patient in person, or the relationship came through referral, consultation, cross-coverage or an ongoing professional connection.

  • The patient receives an electronic or paper copy on request, and the record is forwarded to the patient's regular treating physician unless the patient declines. The duty runs by default rather than waiting for anyone to opt in.

  • No. Telemedicine shall not be used for group therapy provided to a child who is eighteen years of age or younger. Adult group therapy is allowed for some programs where the federal approval covers it.

  • Yes. Treating a patient located here means holding the state's own credential, and acting on an image or a diagnosis from out of state counts as practicing here. The physician compact is enacted but has not begun issuing.

SOURCES

Rules checked September 2026 · 19 sources cited. A planning summary, not legal advice. Statutes, board rules and enforcement priorities change; a brand's own counsel should review its model and marketing before launch.

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