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MN · STATE RULES

Telehealth rules in Minnesota

Minnesota is unusual in putting an expiry date on its own telehealth policy. Audio-only communication counts as telehealth here, but the statute carries that recognition only to 1 July 2027, which makes it a planning assumption with a deadline attached. Two other rules shape a brand's operations more quietly: consumers can ask why an automated profiling decision came out the way it did, and a consent to release health records lapses after a year.

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Rules checked September 2026 · 17 sources cited

ONLY IN MINNESOTA

What is different about Minnesota

Each rule here is true of Minnesota and of none of the states that border it. Beside each one: what the neighbours do instead.

  1. 01 · Practice

    Audio-only telehealth has an expiry date

    Minn. Stat. 62A.673 includes audio-only communication within telehealth in defined circumstances, and then limits that recognition to services provided before 1 July 2027. A brand relying on telephone visits here is relying on a rule the legislature has already scheduled to lapse.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 62A.673

    Across the border

    • Wisconsin

      Wisconsin puts no sunset on any modality and instead builds its asynchronous rules around established patients, covering patient-initiated e-visits conducted through a compliant portal over seven days.

      Source: Wis. Stat. 448

    • Iowa

      Iowa sets no expiry either and regulates the artifact instead, ruling that an internet questionnaire made of a static set of questions is not an acceptable medical interview before prescribing.

      Source: Iowa Admin. Code 481-655.9

    • South Dakota

      South Dakota never admitted audio-only in the first place, defining telehealth as HIPAA-compliant interactive audio and video and leaving phone calls, email and fax outside the term.

      Source: S.D. Codified Laws 58-17-167

    • North Dakota

      North Dakota admits audio but bars it from doing the first job, providing that an examination consisting only of an audio conversation does not meet the standard of care for an initial diagnosis.

      Source: N.D. Cent. Code 43-17-44

  2. 02 · Advertising

    A consumer can ask why the model decided that

    The state's consumer data privacy act gives a consumer the right to question the result of a profiling decision, to be told the reason it reached that outcome, and to learn what actions they could have taken to secure a different one. No other state in the region grants that.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 325M

    Across the border

    • Wisconsin

      Wisconsin has enacted no comprehensive consumer privacy statute, so a resident there has no statutory route to interrogate an automated decision about their care or their pricing.

      Source: Wis. Stat. 146.82

    • Iowa

      Iowa's consumer data protection act grants access, deletion and opt-out rights but includes no right to be told the reasoning behind a profiling outcome or how it might have been changed.

      Source: Iowa Code

    • South Dakota

      South Dakota has passed no omnibus privacy law, leaving an automated decision about a consumer to the deceptive practices provisions of its trade chapter if it is challenged at all.

      Source: S.D. Codified Laws 37-24

    • North Dakota

      North Dakota has no consumer privacy statute either, so profiling by a telehealth brand is governed there by federal health privacy law and by the board's expectations of the licensee.

      Source: N.D. Cent. Code 43-17

  3. 03 · Practice

    A records release consent runs out

    Under Minn. Stat. 144.293 a provider releases health records only with a signed and dated consent, and that consent is valid for one year unless it specifies a shorter or different period. The patient can also require a list of who their records were disclosed to.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 144.293

    Across the border

    • Wisconsin

      Wisconsin also requires informed consent before patient health care records are disclosed, but sets no automatic expiry on that consent and no equivalent right to demand a list of recipients.

      Source: Wis. Stat. 146.82

    • Iowa

      Iowa leans on the federal privacy floor for record disclosure and puts its own statutory weight into the informed consent required for the telemedicine service itself.

      Source: Iowa Code 147.137

    • South Dakota

      South Dakota's telehealth chapter defers entirely on consent, telling the professional to follow whatever state or federal requirement already applies rather than adding a records rule of its own.

      Source: S.D. Codified Laws 34-52-7

    • North Dakota

      North Dakota puts its documentation duties into the encounter, requiring the licensee to verify the patient's identity and disclose the licensure status of anyone providing services in the visit.

      Source: N.D. Cent. Code 43-17-44

PRACTICE RULES

How telehealth works in Minnesota

Two statutes matter most: the telehealth chapter that defines the service and its modalities, and the health records act, which is stricter than the federal floor and governs everything a brand does with a chart.

  1. 01

    Telehealth is defined in the insurance code

    Minn. Stat. 62A.673 carries the definition and the coverage rules, including the circumstances in which audio-only counts, which is why a brand's modality decisions here start in the insurance chapter rather than the practice act.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 62A.673

  2. 02

    The practice act still governs the clinician

    Minn. Stat. 147.033 addresses the practice of medicine across state lines and telehealth by physicians, so the licensing and conduct questions sit with the Board of Medical Practice regardless of coverage.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 147.033

  3. 03

    Records move only on consent

    A signed and dated consent is needed before health records are released, and the patient may ask for an accounting of disclosures. That reaches data sharing with a brand's analytics vendors as much as with another clinician.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 144.293

  4. 04

    The right to refuse is explicit

    State program rules give a person receiving services the right to choose and consent to the use of interactive video and the right to refuse it, which belongs in the patient-facing flow rather than in terms.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Minnesota

FIRST VISIT

Can a first visit happen without a live call in Minnesota?

Yes, with conditions

Yes, subject to the standard of care. The state does not bar a questionnaire by statute, and it currently recognizes audio-only telehealth, but that recognition lapses on 1 July 2027 and a brand's design should not assume it survives.

The planning point is the date. A first-visit model built on telephone contact here is built on a rule with a scheduled end, so the fallback to video needs to exist before the sunset rather than after it.

  1. 01

    Audio-only is time-limited

    The statute includes audio-only in telehealth in defined circumstances up to 1 July 2027. After that the position reverts unless the legislature acts, which makes the telephone pathway a temporary one.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 62A.673

  2. 02

    Consent to the modality

    The person receiving the service consents to the use of interactive video and may refuse it, so the choice of modality is the patient's to decline rather than the platform's to impose.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Minnesota

  3. 03

    Records consent is separate

    Consent to be treated is not consent to release records. The signed and dated release under the records act is its own document, with its own one-year life, and it is what governs data leaving the chart.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 144.293

PRESCRIBING

Prescriptions and controlled drugs in Minnesota

The state mandates electronic prescribing for every prescription rather than only for controlled substances, and its monitoring program sits alongside that with its own query duties.

  1. 01

    Electronic for everything

    The prescribing mandate covers all prescriptions, controlled and non-controlled alike, so a weight or skin prescription is transmitted electronically here on the same footing as a scheduled drug.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Minnesota

  2. 02

    The monitoring program

    Minn. Stat. 152.126 governs the prescription monitoring program, which pharmacies report into and prescribers query, and it carries the registration and access conditions a remote prescriber has to meet.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 152.126

  3. 03

    Federal conditions carry controlled drugs

    For controlled substances the federal telemedicine conditions apply in full, and the state offers no telehealth exception, so the prescriber satisfies both the federal framework and the state transmission mandate.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 152.126

  4. 04

    Records of the prescription

    Because the health records act governs disclosure, the prescription record and any data derived from it stay inside the consent the patient signed, including where a fulfillment partner is involved.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 144.293

Federal rules apply on top of every state's. Prescribing controlled substances by telehealth without an in-person visit runs on DEA flexibilities currently extended through December 31, 2026, with a permanent rule still pending.

LICENSES

Who can treat patients in Minnesota

The Board of Medical Practice licenses physicians and the state belongs to the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. Nurse practitioners hold full practice authority.

  1. 01

    Practice across state lines

    Minn. Stat. 147.033 is the provision that addresses a physician outside the state treating someone here, which is where the licensing analysis for a remote clinician begins rather than in the coverage statute.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 147.033

  2. 02

    The compact expedites the license

    A letter of qualification from a physician's state of principal licensure shortens the application, and the result is a license issued by this board rather than a credential that travels on its own.

    Source: Interstate Medical Licensure Compact

  3. 03

    Nurse practitioners practice independently

    This state sits in the full practice column, so a nurse practitioner may diagnose, order and interpret tests and prescribe under the board of nursing without a physician collaborative agreement.

    Source: AANP: full practice authority brief

  4. 04

    Compacts across professions

    Membership extends to speech-language pathology and audiology, counselling, dentistry, occupational therapy, physician assistants, psychology and social work, which covers most of a telehealth brand's staffing.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Minnesota

How Tessic Health's providers are licensed in Minnesota

ADVERTISING

Marketing to patients in Minnesota

Marketing here runs into two statutes at once: the privacy act, which gives residents rights over profiling and targeted advertising, and the health records act, which is stricter than the federal floor on what may leave a chart.

  1. 01

    Explain the automated decision

    Where profiling produces a decision about a consumer, they may question the result, be told why it came out that way, and learn what they could have done differently. A brand needs that explanation available, not merely computable.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 325M

  2. 02

    Health data is sensitive

    The privacy act treats data concerning a health condition as sensitive, which requires consent before processing and constrains the audiences a brand can build from treatment or diagnosis signals.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 325M

  3. 03

    Records consent is not marketing consent

    A signed release under the records act authorizes disclosure for the purpose stated in it. Reusing that data for advertising is outside the release, and the patient can ask for the list of who received it.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 144.293

  4. 04

    Do not oversell the phone

    Because audio-only recognition lapses on 1 July 2027, marketing that promises telephone visits indefinitely describes something the statute currently schedules to end, and the copy should not outlive the rule.

    Source: Minn. Stat. 62A.673

TESSIC HEALTH IN MINNESOTA

How Tessic Health's providers cover Minnesota

Minnesota coverage is planned around a date as much as a rule, because the statute that lets a telephone visit count as telehealth is scheduled to lapse partway through the planning horizon.

  1. 01

    Video is the default pathway

    Visits with patients here are designed as interactive video encounters, with audio-only used where it is clinically appropriate and recognized, so no part of the model depends on a rule with a sunset.

  2. 02

    Every prescription goes electronically

    Prescriptions for patients in this state are transmitted electronically whether or not they are controlled, because the mandate here covers all prescriptions rather than scheduled drugs alone.

  3. 03

    Records releases are dated and tracked

    Any release of health records runs on a signed and dated consent, its one-year life is tracked, and the log of disclosures is kept so a patient asking for the list can be answered.

  4. 04

    Automated decisions are explainable

    Where an automated model influences eligibility or routing, the reason for the outcome and what would have changed it are recorded in a form a patient can be given on request.

  5. 05

    Pharmacy and markup

    Medication reaches patients here from pharmacies licensed to ship into the state, at 0% markup, with cold-chain packaging where stability requires it.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about telehealth in Minnesota

  • For now. Audio-only communication is included within telehealth in defined circumstances, but the statute carries that recognition only to 1 July 2027, so a model built on it needs a video fallback ready.

  • Yes, all of them. The mandate covers every prescription rather than only controlled substances, so a non-controlled weight or skin prescription is transmitted electronically on the same footing as a scheduled drug.

  • One year, unless the consent specifies a different period. Health records are released only on a signed and dated consent, and a patient may also ask for a list of who their records were disclosed to.

  • Yes. The consumer data privacy act lets a consumer question the result of a profiling decision, be told the reason it reached that outcome, and learn what actions could have produced a different one.

  • Yes. State program rules give the person receiving services the right to choose and consent to the use of interactive video and the right to refuse it, which belongs in the patient-facing flow.

  • No. This is a full practice state, so a nurse practitioner may diagnose, order and interpret tests and prescribe under the board of nursing without a physician collaborative agreement.

SOURCES

Rules checked September 2026 · 17 sources cited. A planning summary, not legal advice. Statutes, board rules and enforcement priorities change; a brand's own counsel should review its model and marketing before launch.

OTHER STATES

Rules in other states

Each state page is researched from that state's own statutes and board rules.

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