Understanding the Legal Pitfalls of Virtual Second Opinions: What You Need to Know

Virtual medical second opinion (VSO) programs continue to roll out across the country, delivering expert recommendations to better help patients’ diagnoses or treatment options. These VSO programs can offer immense value to patients and their local treating doctors by leveraging the deep expertise of specialists and exporting it to rural communities and geographies that lack such sub-specialty expertise.

Congress Extends Telehealth Flexibilities for Two More Years

With only two weeks remaining in the year, Congress appears poised to pass a government funding deal (the “Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025”) that includes a welcome holiday gift for health care providers and patients – an expansive health care package that would extend certain telehealth flexibilities promulgated during the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”) for an additional two years. The extended telehealth flexibilities were originally set to expire on December 31, 2024. This extension would generally allow providers to continue to serve Medicare patients via telehealth consistent with the current practices.

Tele-ultrasound Offers a Virtual Lifeline for High-Risk Pregnancies in Rural New Mexico

The facts, by now, are impossible to ignore. According to the CDC’s latest findings, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable [1]. Among the contributing factors is the rising number of maternity care deserts across the United States – counties in which access to the full range of maternity health care services is limited or absent. A 2022 report by March of Dimes confirms that 5% of counties nationwide had less maternity access than two years prior, affecting up to 6.9 million women and almost 500,000 births in the U.S.

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