Texas Ends Telemedicine Waivers with Statewide COVID-19 Disaster Expiration

Governor Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration related to the COVID-19 pandemic expired on June 15, 2023. As a result, ALL rule waivers are no longer active as of this date.

Emergency Visiting Physician Temporary Permits will remain in effect for an additional 30 days after the termination of the disaster declaration to allow permit holders and health care entities to properly plan. Therefore, current authorized Emergency VPTPs, and any emergency reactivations for retired or cancelled licenses, will terminate on July 14, 2023, and permit holders who do not have an active permit or license with the Board must cease practice in Texas.

The following additional rule waivers are no longer in effect as of 6/15/2023:

• Telemedicine Waiver: allowed providers to establish a physician-patient relationship via telephone (audio-only) and enabled phone consults to diagnose, treat, order tests, and prescribe.
• Supervision and Prescriptive Authority Registrations: waived the requirement of physicians having to register with the TMB their supervision and prescriptive authority for PAs and APRNs. For more information on this requirement, visit: https://www.tmb.state.tx.us/page/supervision-and-prescriptive-delegation/
• Limits on Number of Delegates: waived the delegate limit of seven PAs or APRNs that a physician could supervise and delegate to regardless of location or setting.
• PITs: allowed Texas hospitals and facilities associated with Graduate Medical Education (GME) training programs to be able to utilize Physician in Training (PIT) permit holders in areas outside of their GME training program to respond to COVID-19.

Read more details at Texas Medical Board >>