Response to a telemedicine inquiry from the Florida House of Representatives and text of model act to regulate the practice of telemedicine.

This past summer, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) drafted model legislation on the practice of medicine across state lines and sent it to each state medical board for consideration. The Florida House of Representatives Committee on Business and Professional Regulation posed a series of questions about telemedicine covering issues of licensure, malpractice, insurance reimbursement, technology, physician interest and acceptance, quality of care, and cost benefit. The author's responses having been modified for this article, are presented, as is the model legislation. Appendix I is the Executive Summary of the FSMB. Appendix II is the model legislation.