Tessic Health

MD · STATE RULES

Telehealth rules in Maryland

Maryland is permissive about how care begins and strict about the channel it travels through. The practice act says in terms that a relationship may be built through an asynchronous exchange, then removes three channels from the definition of telehealth entirely, so a case that runs on voice calls or e-mail is outside the framework rather than inside it. The consumer data act adds a flat bar on selling health information.

Book a DemoAll states
First visit
Async allowed
Physician license
Compact member; own license
Controlled drugs
No Schedule II opiates for pain
Nurse practitioners
Full practice

Rules checked September 2026 · 21 sources cited

ONLY IN MARYLAND

What is different about Maryland

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

  1. 01 · Practice

    A phone call by itself is not telehealth

    The definition in Md. Health Occ. 1-1001 is generous at one end and closed at the other. Synchronous and asynchronous exchanges both count, and the asynchronous branch expressly covers the secure transmission of clinical data, images, laboratory results and a self-reported history. Care delivered solely through an audio-only call, an e-mail message or a facsimile is then lifted out of the definition, so none of those channels carries a telehealth encounter on its own.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1001

    Across the border

    • Virginia

      Interactive audio sits inside its definition of telemedicine services, and coverage policy pays for a voice-only encounter when the claim carries the right modifier.

      Source: Va. Code 38.2-3418.16

    • West Virginia

      Audio-only telephone calls are named inside its statutory definition of a telehealth service, and a live voice call is one of the listed ways to open a case there.

      Source: W. Va. Code 30-1-26

    • Pennsylvania

      Synchronous interactions, asynchronous interactions and remote patient monitoring make up its definition, and no channel is carved back out of it.

      Source: 40 Pa.C.S. 4802

    • Delaware

      Voice-only contact is written in there as a fallback for a patient who cannot reach adequate broadband service, which makes it a permitted mode rather than an excluded one.

      Source: 24 Del. C. 6001

  2. 02 · Prescribing

    Only pain opiates are closed off

    Md. Health Occ. 1-1003 does not shut telehealth out of controlled prescribing. It closes a single lane: a Schedule II opiate prescribed for the treatment of pain. Even that reopens in three listed situations, where the patient is in a health care facility, where a catastrophic health emergency has been declared, or where the practitioner or a colleague in the same group has already assessed the patient in person. Every other prescription rests on a clinical evaluation appropriate to the patient and the condition.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1003

    Across the border

    • Virginia

      Its condition falls on the prescriber rather than on the molecule, requiring a practice location inside the state or a workable referral to a locally licensed practitioner.

      Source: Va. Code 54.1-3303

    • West Virginia

      The whole of Schedule II is unavailable there to a patient whose treatment has run entirely through telemedicine, with exceptions drawn around prior in-person contact and certain young patients.

      Source: W. Va. Code 30-3-13a

    • Pennsylvania

      Its board rule sweeps in every controlled substance, calling for an initial medical history and an initial physical examination before any of them is prescribed.

      Source: 49 Pa. Code 16.92

    • Delaware

      Nothing there is keyed to a particular schedule; instead a prescription fails when it rests solely on an internet questionnaire, an internet consult or a telephone consult.

      Source: 24 Del. C. 6003

  3. 03 · Advertising

    Health data may not be sold at any price

    Md. Code Com. Law 14-4707 sets two limits a marketing team feels immediately. Sensitive data may be collected, processed or shared only where that is strictly necessary to provide the specific product or service the consumer asked for, and it may not be sold at all. Consumer health data, meaning data a controller uses to identify someone's physical or mental health status, is named as sensitive, so no consent screen unlocks the sale.

    Source: Md. Code Com. Law 14-4707

    Across the border

    • Virginia

      Its consumer data act runs on permission instead of prohibition, requiring opt-in consent before sensitive data is processed and leaving a lawful sale available afterwards.

      Source: Va. Code 59.1-578

    • West Virginia

      No general consumer data statute has been enacted there, so a marketer answers to the unfair trade practices law and to the federal privacy floor.

      Source: W. Va. Code 46A-6-104

    • Pennsylvania

      Comprehensive data legislation is absent there as well, and claims about a service are chased through the attorney general's unfair trade practices authority.

      Source: 73 P.S. 201-2

    • Delaware

      Its personal data privacy act also gates the sensitive categories behind consent, which means a route to lawful processing exists that a flat prohibition would close.

      Source: 6 Del. C. 12D-106

PRACTICE RULES

How telehealth works in Maryland

Everything begins in one place: Title 1, Subtitle 10 of the Health Occupations Article, which speaks to every licensed health occupation at once rather than to physicians alone. It is short, and most of the work is done by its definition.

  1. 01

    What the definition takes in

    Telehealth is the delivery of care by a practitioner to a patient at a different physical location through telecommunications technology. Both real-time exchanges and exchanges that do not happen in real time are included, the second covering secure transmission of medical information, clinical data, clinical images, laboratory results and self-reported history.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1001

  2. 02

    Three channels fall outside it

    Services delivered solely through an audio-only call, an e-mail message or a facsimile transmission are excluded. A brand can still use those channels around an encounter, but they cannot be the encounter, and a compliance record that shows nothing else is a gap.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1001

  3. 03

    Three steps to open a case

    The practitioner verifies the identity of the patient receiving services, discloses their own name, contact information and the type of health occupation license they hold, and obtains consent from the patient or, where state law requires it, from a parent or guardian.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1002

  4. 04

    Judged against the office standard

    A practitioner working through telehealth is held to the standards of practice that apply in an in-person setting, and is expected to provide or arrange in-person care where that is clinically appropriate for the patient in front of them.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1003

FIRST VISIT

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

Yes

Yes, and the statute says so directly. A practitioner may establish the relationship through either a synchronous or an asynchronous interaction, so long as the patient's identity is verified, the practitioner's own credentials are disclosed and consent is obtained.

Few states put the answer in the operative text this plainly. The design question here is therefore not whether an asynchronous first visit is permitted but whether the channel a brand chose survives the definition.

  1. 01

    Asynchronous is named, not implied

    The relationship provision offers both interaction types on equal footing rather than treating one as a fallback, which removes the interpretive risk a brand carries in states where store and forward intake rests on a standard-of-care argument alone.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1002

  2. 02

    The practitioner introduces themselves

    Disclosing the name, the contact information and the type of license held is a precondition of the relationship rather than a courtesy. A flow that presents a brand name and hides the treating clinician's credential misses a statutory step.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1002

  3. 03

    Consent may be spoken

    Oral consent is accepted alongside written consent, which suits a live encounter, and the parent or guardian stands in wherever state law makes their consent necessary for the patient in question.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1002

  4. 04

    A voice call will not carry it

    Because a service delivered solely by audio-only call sits outside the definition, an intake handled entirely on the telephone does not produce a telehealth encounter here, however complete the clinical conversation was.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1001

PRESCRIBING

Prescriptions and controlled drugs in Maryland

The prescribing section is written as a general duty with one narrow exclusion bolted on, and the monitoring program supplies most of the procedural weight a remote prescriber actually feels.

  1. 01

    An evaluation fitted to the condition

    Before prescribing through telehealth the practitioner performs a clinical evaluation appropriate for the patient and the condition, and the statute accepts either a real-time or a store and forward interaction as the vehicle for that evaluation.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1003

  2. 02

    The one closed lane

    A Schedule II opiate for the treatment of pain is the exclusion, subject to the facility, declared emergency and prior in-person assessment exceptions. Other controlled dangerous substances are governed by whatever federal and state limits otherwise apply to them.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1003

  3. 03

    Four months of history first

    A prescriber requests at least the prior four months of monitoring data before starting a course that includes an opioid or a benzodiazepine, then repeats the request at least every ninety days while the course continues past that point.

    Source: Md. Health-Gen. 21-2A-04.2

  4. 04

    Who the look-back skips

    Amounts prescribed for three days or less are exempt, as are cancer-related pain, patients in hospitals, hospice and long-term care, a short window after surgery or childbirth, and situations where the system is down or the delay would harm urgent care.

    Source: Md. Health-Gen. 21-2A-04.2

  5. 05

    Federal rules still sit on top

    For scheduled drugs the federal telemedicine conditions apply alongside the state ones, and the flexibilities permitting a remote controlled-substance prescription without a prior in-person medical evaluation are set to expire on December 31, 2026.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Maryland

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 Maryland

A clinician treating someone located here holds the credential their own board issues, and for most professions a multistate route shortens the wait. The compact list is long, and physicians are on it.

  1. 01

    The physician compact is open

    Membership in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact means a qualifying doctor reaches a full license here on an expedited track, which matters to launch timing for any brand building a multistate panel.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Maryland

  2. 02

    Nurse practitioners stand alone

    The American Association of Nurse Practitioners classes this as a full practice state, so a nurse practitioner evaluates, diagnoses and prescribes under the exclusive authority of the nursing board without a collaboration or supervision agreement attached.

    Source: AANP: full practice authority brief

  3. 03

    No single course is compulsory

    Renewal rests on continuing education hours counted across a two-year term, and the licensing statute withholds from the Board of Physicians the power to make one named course mandatory for every licensee it registers.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 14-316

  4. 04

    Other roles, other compacts

    Nurses, psychologists, counselors, social workers, occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language professionals all have multistate routes here too, so a mixed clinical panel is unusually quick to stand up.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Maryland

How Tessic Health's providers are licensed in Maryland

ADVERTISING

Marketing to patients in Maryland

Two very different bodies of law meet in a growth team's backlog here. The physician discipline statute governs what a clinician may say, and the consumer data act governs what a company may do with what it learns.

  1. 01

    Advertise only as the board allows

    The framing is permissive rather than prohibitive: a physician may advertise only as the board's rules and regulations permit. That inverts the usual analysis, because the question becomes what the regulations authorize rather than what they forbid.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 14-503

  2. 02

    Name the board behind the badge

    A physician may not tell the public they are board certified without actually holding that certification and disclosing the full name of the certifying board and the specialty. Credential badges in landing page copy need the full name spelled out.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 14-503

  3. 03

    No payment for sending a patient

    Paying or agreeing to pay any sum for bringing or referring a patient, and accepting any sum for the same, are grounds for discipline, as is soliciting professional patronage through an agent. Affiliate and partner economics need reviewing against both.

    Source: Md. Health Occ. 14-404

  4. 04

    Collect only what the service needs

    Collection of personal data is limited to what is reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide or maintain the specific product or service the consumer requested, which puts a hard question to every optional field in an intake form.

    Source: Md. Code Com. Law 14-4707

TESSIC HEALTH IN MARYLAND

How Tessic Health's providers cover Maryland

Because the statute settles the asynchronous question and then polices the channel, the product here keeps its store and forward intake and puts its controls on what the encounter travels through and what the company retains.

  1. 01

    Store and forward stays open

    Patients located here can complete a first visit through a reviewed history, submitted images and laboratory results, because the relationship provision offers that route on the same footing as a live appointment.

  2. 02

    The clinician is named up front

    Before an encounter opens, the treating clinician's name, contact route and license type are shown to the patient and written to the record, since disclosure is a condition of the relationship rather than a presentation choice.

  3. 03

    Nothing runs on voice alone

    A telephone conversation is treated as support around a visit and never as the visit itself, because a service delivered solely by audio-only call falls outside the statutory definition.

  4. 04

    Pain opiates are not offered

    Schedule II opiates for pain are kept off the remote catalog for patients here, and any other controlled prescription follows the monitoring look-back before a course begins and again on the ninety-day cycle.

  5. 05

    Data stays where it was collected

    Health information gathered from patients here is never sold, and intake collects only the fields the requested service needs, because the consumer data act bars the sale outright and caps collection at strict necessity.

  6. 06

    Filling and shipping the order

    Every order for a patient here is filled by a pharmacy permitted to ship into the state and passed through at 0% markup, with cold-chain handling reserved for products that require it.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about telehealth in Maryland

  • Yes, and the statute states it directly rather than leaving it to inference. Either a synchronous or an asynchronous interaction may establish the relationship, provided identity is verified, the practitioner's credentials are disclosed and consent is taken.

  • Not on its own. A service delivered solely through an audio-only call is excluded from the definition of telehealth, alongside e-mail messages and facsimile transmissions. Voice contact can support a case but cannot be the encounter.

  • One category: a Schedule II opiate prescribed for the treatment of pain. Even that is available where the patient is in a health care facility, where a catastrophic health emergency has been declared, or where the practice has already assessed the patient in person.

  • At least four months of data before an opioid or benzodiazepine course begins, then at least every ninety days once treatment runs past that mark. Supplies of three days or less, cancer pain and several care settings are exempt.

  • No. Sensitive data may not be sold under the consumer data act, and consumer health data is named as sensitive. Collection of personal data is separately limited to what is reasonably necessary for the service the consumer requested.

  • No. This is a full practice state, so a nurse practitioner evaluates, diagnoses and prescribes under the nursing board's authority alone. That widens the staffing options for a brand building a panel here.

SOURCES

Rules checked September 2026 · 21 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.

OTHER STATES

Rules in other states

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