US: Judge allows Teladoc’s suit against Texas Medical Board to proceed

The judge in the case of Teladoc versus the Texas Medical Board has denied the board’s motion to dismiss the suit, responding to each of three claims that the suit was invalid, originally made in September. In the process, Judge Robert Pitman settled the issue of “active supervision”, a highly salient point in the case.

In April, Teladoc sued the Texas Medical Board, alleging that a 2010 rule requiring doctors to have an in-person or face-to-face visit with a patient in order to prescribe medication, is in violation of antitrust laws and serves to restrict competition from telemedicine companies.

The Board petitioned to have the case thrown out for three different reasons: that the four-year statute of limitations for antitrust cases had expired since the passing of the 2010 rule; that the state actor immunity they were claiming was an immunity to suit; and that certain claims Teladoc made with regards to the Commerce Clause, which asserted that the board’s rules illegally limited interstate commerce, were unfounded.

Full content: BusinessWire

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