Law 14,510/2022: what Brazil's telehealth law guarantees

Law 14,510 of December 27, 2022 authorizes and regulates telehealth throughout Brazil. It applies to all regulated health professions, not only medicine, and rests on three guarantees: the professional's autonomy, the patient's free and informed consent, and the right to refuse remote care.

What happened

During the pandemic, remote care was permitted by an emergency law, Law 13,989/2020, which was valid for as long as the health crisis lasted. When the government announced the end of the emergency, in April 2022, that legal cover was set to expire. As Estadão reported, the Chamber of Deputies approved bill 1,998/2020 on April 27, 2022, which dealt with telehealth on a permanent basis. The text went through the Senate and was signed into law on December 27, 2022, and published in the Official Gazette the following day.

The law defines telehealth as the provision of health services at a distance through information and communication technologies, with secure transmission of data by text, sound, image or another suitable form. According to Agência Senado, it sets out these principles:

• autonomy of the health professional;
• free and informed consent of the patient;
• the right to refuse care in the telehealth modality;
• dignity and recognition of the professional;
• safe, quality care for the patient;
• confidentiality of data;
• promotion of universal access to health actions and services;
• strict observance of the legal duties of each profession;
• digital responsibility.

Professionals have "freedom and complete independence" to decide whether to use telehealth, and may opt for in-person care whenever they see fit. Ethical oversight lies with the federal councils of each profession, such as those of Medicine, Nursing and Psychology.

Why it matters

The law turned a temporary permission into a permanent policy and broadened its reach: nurses, psychologists, nutritionists and physical therapists gained a legal basis to provide remote care, each under the rules of their own council. Among the principles, one deserves emphasis: the promotion of universal access. The law states, in so many words, that telehealth also exists to bring care to those who are far from it.

The other side of the coin lies in consent and confidentiality. Remote care means health data traveling over the network, and the law asks that patients know what they are agreeing to and be able to say no.

In Bairo's view

For Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, the principle of universal access is the heart of the law. In his reading, access to health care still depends too much on address and wallet: those who live near a specialist and can pay get there; the others wait. Technology, when used well, shortens that distance.

Bairo often recalls that access without responsibility is not access. That is why, in the health ventures he founded, technology comes in as a clinical assistant and the one who validates is always a licensed professional. At Hospital Triage, the idea is that the first listening, the one that organizes the story and shows the way, should not depend on how much the person can pay. At Xperienc Global Labs, the teleconsultation with a specialist from another country arrives as a clinical second opinion for the doctor who already follows the patient.

He also separates the pain treated in the doctor's office from the pain that calls for another kind of presence. The pages on pain, faith and reconnection speak of the latter, and how faith helps you get through pain tells his path.

Where this meets the ecosystem

Xperienc Global Labs proposes a teleconsultation platform with a clinical assistant, the Global Language translator and private records in the user's dashboard, protected by the post-quantum layer of qrqbits. The design meets the law's principles, consent and confidentiality, as a proposal; each service's compliance depends on a legal assessment before it operates.

Hospital Triage is a pre-consultation system under development, designed for public health networks, health plan operators and telemedicine services. It organizes the listening before care and calls a doctor or nurse when needed.

Sources

• Presidency of the Republic, Law 14,510 of 12/27/2022: planalto.gov.br
• Agência Senado, "Lei autoriza telessaúde com autonomia para profissionais e consentimento de pacientes" (Law authorizes telehealth with autonomy for professionals and consent of patients), 12/28/2022: senado.leg.br
• Agência Câmara de Notícias, "Lei regulamenta a prática da telessaúde em todo o País" (Law regulates the practice of telehealth nationwide), Dec. 2022: camara.leg.br
• Estadão (Blog do Fausto Macedo), "Resolução do CFM e aprovação de projeto de lei na Câmara dão novos rumos para a telemedicina" (CFM resolution and approval of bill in the Chamber set new directions for telemedicine), 5/6/2022: estadao.com.br

Read also

• CFM Resolution 2,314/2022: the telemedicine rules
• Meu SUS Digital: mental health through remote care
• The future of triage