Tessic Health

WV · STATE RULES

Telehealth rules in West Virginia

Two clocks govern remote care in West Virginia. The first runs at the start: a case cannot be opened by questionnaire, e-mail or text, so the opening encounter has to happen in real time. The second runs for as long as the patient keeps using telehealth, because the standard of care expects an in-person practitioner to be seen within twelve months or the remote service stops. A registration route softens the licensing side of that.

Book a DemoAll states
First visit
Live visit first
Physician license
IMLC, or remote registration
Controlled drugs
Prior in-person for Schedule II
Nurse practitioners
Reduced practice

Rules checked September 2026 · 21 sources cited

ONLY IN WEST VIRGINIA

What is different about West Virginia

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

  1. 01 · First visit

    Writing cannot open a case

    W. Va. Code 30-3-13a names the ways a physician may form the relationship: interactive audio paired with store and forward technology, real-time videoconferencing, or a real-time telephone call where video is unavailable. It then rules out the written channels outright, so e-mail, an internet questionnaire and text-based messaging cannot start anything, and issuing a prescription off an online questionnaire alone is treated as below the accepted standard of care.

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

    Across the border

    • Pennsylvania

      Self-reported medical history, clinical images and laboratory results count as telemedicine under Act 42, which leaves a store and forward intake free to begin a course of treatment.

      Source: 40 Pa.C.S. 4802

    • Maryland

      An asynchronous exchange may carry the opening encounter there, provided the practitioner checks who the patient is, names their own license type and takes oral or written consent.

      Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1002

    • Virginia

      Modality is left open there and a list of conditions takes its place, so a store and forward review is workable when every item on that list is satisfied.

      Source: Va. Code 54.1-3303

    • Kentucky

      The questionnaire is singled out there as inadequate for an initial evaluation and for any follow-up, which leaves a genuinely two-way asynchronous exchange standing.

      Source: KRS 311.597

    • Ohio

      Asynchronous review sits inside the permitted modes there, so how a first encounter is delivered answers to the standard of care rather than to a fixed technology list.

      Source: Ohio Rev. Code 4743.09

  2. 02 · Practice

    Twelve months to be seen in person

    W. Va. Code 30-1-26 folds a calendar into the standard of care. An established patient is expected to visit an in-person health care practitioner within twelve months of the first telemedicine service, and the statute says the telemedicine service is no longer available to that patient until the in-person visit happens. Acute inpatient care, post-operative follow-up checks, behavioral medicine, addiction medicine and palliative care are carved out of the requirement.

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

    Across the border

    • Pennsylvania

      No repeating deadline appears in the telemedicine act there, so a course of remote care may continue indefinitely as long as it holds to the in-person standard of care.

      Source: 40 Pa.C.S. 4805

    • Maryland

      The prescribing statute there asks for a clinical evaluation suited to the patient and the condition, plus a referral to in-person care when that is clinically appropriate, with nothing recurring on a calendar.

      Source: Md. Health Occ. 1-1003

    • Virginia

      Its conditions bite at the moment of prescribing, calling for a history available to the prescriber, an updated history taken then, and a diagnosis made then, with no annual return to a physical office.

      Source: Va. Code 54.1-3303

    • Kentucky

      What repeats there is the quality of the evaluation rather than a location, because the same inadequacy rule applies to a follow-up as to the very first assessment.

      Source: KRS 311.597

    • Ohio

      Any in-person step there is pinned to the drug being written rather than to elapsed time, so a patient on non-controlled treatment never faces a scheduled return.

      Source: Ohio Admin. Code 4731-11-09

  3. 03 · Licenses

    Sign up with the board instead of licensing

    Each health care board here runs an interstate telehealth registration under W. Va. Code 30-1-26. A practitioner licensed and in good standing somewhere else, not under investigation and carrying no restriction, may register and then treat patients located here without holding a full state license. Registering hands the board complaint, investigation and hearing jurisdiction over that practitioner, and it buys nothing physical: the registration does not authorize practice from a location inside the state.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-1-26(b), (c)

    Across the border

PRACTICE RULES

How telehealth works in West Virginia

Two statutes carry the weight. W. Va. Code 30-1-26 speaks to every licensing board at once, and W. Va. Code 30-3-13a speaks to physicians and podiatrists in particular. Read together they are prescriptive about technology in a way most states are not.

  1. 01

    What counts as a telehealth service

    Telehealth services are defined as the use of synchronous or asynchronous telecommunications technology, or audio-only telephone calls, by a practitioner to deliver care. Internet questionnaires, e-mail messages and facsimile transmissions are struck out of that definition, so none of them is a telehealth service at all.

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

  2. 02

    Every board writes to the same outline

    The statute directs each board under chapter 30 to adopt rules covering when the practitioner-patient relationship is established, the standard of care, record keeping and the interstate registration, which is why a physician, an advanced practice nurse and a pharmacist here work to a matching framework.

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

  3. 03

    Consent before the technology is used

    A physician practicing telemedicine obtains appropriate consent for the use of telemedicine technologies and documents it, which is a consent to the mode of care rather than a consent to the treatment plan alone.

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

  4. 04

    The visit clock and who escapes it

    Acute inpatient care, post-operative follow-up checks, behavioral medicine, addiction medicine and palliative care are listed outside the twelve-month requirement. A weight, skin, hair or hormone program is not on that list, so it sits inside the clock.

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

FIRST VISIT

Can a first visit happen without a live call in West Virginia?

No, a live visit comes first

No. The opening encounter has to be live, whether that is interactive audio with store and forward, real-time video, or a real-time phone call. Written channels are excluded by statute, and a prescription resting on an online questionnaire alone does not meet the accepted standard of care.

This is one of a small number of states where the first contact is settled by law rather than by clinical judgment. A brand that runs questionnaire-first intake everywhere else has to build a second path for patients here.

  1. 01

    Live contact starts the relationship

    Interactive audio with store and forward technology, real-time videoconferencing and similar secure video services are the listed ways to begin. A real-time telephone call is also accepted, with the statute noting that audio-visual communication is preferable where it is available.

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

  2. 02

    Written channels are ruled out

    E-mail, internet questionnaires, text-based messaging and other written forms of communication cannot establish the relationship. Intake forms remain useful for gathering history, but they carry no legal weight as the encounter itself.

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

  3. 03

    Store and forward keeps a narrow lane

    Pathology and radiology are the named exception, where store and forward telemedicine or similar technology may establish the relationship because the specialty works from images and specimens rather than from a conversation.

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

  4. 04

    After the first visit, technology opens up

    Once the relationship exists the physician may use whatever telemedicine technology suits the encounter, so the constraint is front-loaded onto the first visit and onto the twelve-month check rather than spread across every follow-up.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: West Virginia

PRESCRIBING

Prescriptions and controlled drugs in West Virginia

A remote prescriber here works against three things at once: the monitoring program, the statutory limit on Schedule II for telemedicine-only patients, and the federal rules for scheduled drugs.

  1. 01

    Look up the record, then once a year

    Before a first prescription for a Schedule II drug, an opioid or a benzodiazepine, the prescriber pulls the patient's Controlled Substances Monitoring Program record, and that lookup repeats no less than once a year for as long as the controlled course continues.

    Source: W. Va. Code 60A-9-5a

  2. 02

    Schedule II and the remote-only patient

    A physician practicing telemedicine may not write Schedule II for a patient whose care has run entirely through telemedicine. The exceptions are narrow: an established relationship built on a prior in-person encounter, certain minors and students with listed conditions, and a hospital patient receiving the drug immediately.

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

  3. 03

    What an advanced practice nurse may sign

    Schedule I is closed to an advanced practice registered nurse here, and a Schedule II narcotic may be written only as a three-day supply, with a narrow carve-out for a patient enrolled in a medication-assisted treatment clinical trial.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-7-15a

  4. 04

    Federal rules sit above the state ones

    For scheduled drugs the federal telemedicine conditions apply on top of all of this, and the flexibilities that allow a remote controlled-substance prescription without a prior in-person medical evaluation are set to run through December 31, 2026.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: West Virginia

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 West Virginia

Two doors lead in. A clinician may hold the full license their board issues, or may register as an interstate telehealth practitioner and work remotely under that board's jurisdiction. Which door a brand uses changes what its clinicians may physically do here.

  1. 01

    Registration buys remote work only

    The registration route is open to a practitioner licensed and in good standing elsewhere who is not under investigation, and it comes with a fee the statute caps at what a licensee pays. It authorizes no practice from a physical location inside the state.

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

  2. 02

    The compact is the other route

    Physicians may also reach a full license through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which matters for any brand that expects to open a clinic, run in-person follow-ups, or move a clinician's principal practice here later.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: West Virginia

  3. 03

    Nurse practitioners collaborate, then do not

    The American Association of Nurse Practitioners classes this as a reduced practice state: prescriptive authority begins inside a collaborative relationship with a physician and the collaboration requirement lifts once the statutory period of practice is behind the nurse.

    Source: AANP: full practice authority brief

  4. 04

    Renewal credit points at prescribing

    Physician renewal runs on Category I credit counted across a two-year cycle under W. Va. Code 30-3-12, and a prescriber's allotment is steered by W. Va. Code 30-1-7a toward drug diversion, best-practice prescribing and the use of an opioid antagonist.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-1-7a

How Tessic Health's providers are licensed in West Virginia

ADVERTISING

Marketing to patients in West Virginia

There is no comprehensive consumer data statute here, so a brand's marketing answers to the medical board's discipline grounds, the unfair trade practices law, and the federal privacy floor.

  1. 01

    Deceptive advertising is a discipline ground

    False or deceptive advertising is listed as a ground for disciplinary action against a physician, and a separate ground reaches any deceptive, untrue or fraudulent representation made in the practice of medicine.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-3-14(c)

  2. 02

    Pressure selling is named separately

    Soliciting patients personally or through an agent by fraud, intimidation or undue influence is its own ground, which is worth reading before any aggressive retention or win-back campaign is pointed at patients here.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-3-14(c)

  3. 03

    No payment for sending a patient

    Requesting, receiving or paying a rebate, commission, credit or other valuable consideration for a patient referral is prohibited, whether the payment is direct or routed through someone else, which reaches affiliate and partnership arrangements.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-3-14(c)

  4. 04

    Say what the brand owns

    A physician is required to disclose in writing any proprietary interest in a clinical laboratory or a pharmacy to which a patient is directed, which matters directly to a vertically built brand that fills its own prescriptions.

    Source: W. Va. Code 30-3-14(c)

  5. 05

    Consumer law catches the rest

    Unfair or deceptive acts and practices in trade or commerce are prohibited by the consumer protection act, which gives the attorney general a route to a marketing claim that never reaches a licensing board.

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

TESSIC HEALTH IN WEST VIRGINIA

How Tessic Health's providers cover West Virginia

Because the opening encounter is settled by statute rather than by clinical judgment here, the product treats a live first visit as a hard requirement and puts the twelve-month check on a tracked schedule.

  1. 01

    The first appointment is live

    A patient here is routed to a real-time appointment before anything is prescribed, and the asynchronous intake path used in other states is closed off, because written channels cannot form the relationship.

  2. 02

    The in-person date is tracked

    The date of the first telemedicine service is recorded against the patient, and an in-person visit is arranged or a local referral made before the twelve-month point rather than after remote care has already lapsed.

  3. 03

    Registered or licensed before the first visit

    Clinicians reaching patients here either hold this state's license or carry the board registration for out-of-state practitioners, and Tessic Health's providers are licensed across all fifty states.

  4. 04

    Scheduled drugs wait for the record

    Nothing in Schedule II is written for a patient whose care has been entirely remote, and the monitoring program record is pulled before any first controlled prescription and again on the annual cycle.

  5. 05

    How medication reaches the patient

    Medication travels from a pharmacy permitted to dispense into the state, the drug itself is passed through at 0% markup, and anything temperature-sensitive moves under cold chain.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about telehealth in West Virginia

  • No. The relationship has to begin with a real-time encounter, whether that is interactive audio with store and forward, live video, or a live phone call. E-mail, questionnaires and text-based messaging are excluded by statute.

  • Yes, twelve months from the first telemedicine service. The statute says telemedicine is no longer available to that patient until the in-person visit takes place. Acute inpatient care, post-operative checks, behavioral medicine, addiction medicine and palliative care are outside the rule.

  • Not necessarily. A practitioner licensed and in good standing elsewhere may register with the relevant board as an interstate telehealth practitioner. That registration covers remote care only and does not allow practice from a physical location in the state.

  • Yes, a real-time telephone call is one of the listed ways to establish the relationship, and audio-only calls fall inside the statutory definition of a telehealth service. The statute still notes that audio-visual communication is preferable where it is available.

  • Only in narrow circumstances. A physician may not prescribe Schedule II to a patient treated solely by telemedicine, and the exceptions cover an established relationship from a prior in-person encounter, certain minors and students with listed conditions, and immediate administration in hospital.

  • Eventually. This is a reduced practice state, so prescriptive authority begins inside a collaborative relationship with a physician and that requirement lifts after the statutory period. Schedule I is closed to them and a Schedule II narcotic is limited to a three-day supply.

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

Each state page is researched from that state's own statutes and board rules.

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