Online Diagnoses at 1st Contact to Be OK’d as One-Off Step

April 6, 2020

Tokyo- Japan will liberalize online diagnoses at the time of the initial contact with patients as a temporary measure to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus inside hospitals, it was learned Monday.

The deregulatory measure, expected to be approved formally Tuesday, will be in place until the COVID-19 outbreak comes under control. Whether the measure should be maintained will be checked every three months through prefecture-by-prefecture surveys.

It will allow doctors to give medical diagnoses and treatment to patients, including those with no past medical records available at the hospitals, online or by telephone from their first contact. The current rules basically require the procedures to be done in person at the time of the initial contact.

The official medical service price for online diagnosis will be raised from the current 710 yen to 2,000 yen, on par with in-person consultations.

The government decided to make the regulatory change a temporary measure in light of concerns raised by the Japan Medical Association.

The government will seek to prevent the misuse of online diagnoses, such as the resale of medications, by introducing strict measures for identity verification and limiting the amount of drugs that can be prescribed.

The government will call for preparations for a possible sudden change in health conditions of patients taking online diagnoses if the doctors and patients are located far from each other.

Specifically, the hospitals will be required to prepare systems for transferring their online diagnosis patients to the care of medical institutions located closer to where the patients live.

Medical institutions will be designated eligible to conduct online diagnoses if they wish. A list of participating institutions will be published on prefectural governments' websites. Jiji Press