Following news that a rheumatologist in Santa Fe restricted unvaccinated patients to telehealth to protect immunocompromised patients, Part B News spoke with Patricia Markus, North Carolina-based partner at Nelson Mullins, about whether this raised a patient abandonment issue.

According to Markus, “Assuming the telehealth service is conducted on the liberal basis that CMS has allowed for many Medicare services since the pandemic began, with no provider required in the room with the patient, it may be that the lack of a ‘hands-on’ provider means telehealth is not an equivalent level of service for some patients.”

Markus said, however, that the involvement of immunocompromised patients makes the provider’s policy hard to refute: “The cardinal rule is ‘do no harm,’” she said. “That includes balancing the needs of a patient who isn’t vaccinated and who wants to come into my busy practice with the needs of my other immunocompromised patients.”

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