Tessic Health

VT · STATE RULES

Telehealth rules in Vermont

Vermont will let a clinician licensed somewhere else treat its residents without a full license, and then it counts the patients. A telehealth license covers twenty people over two years. A telehealth registration covers ten over 120 days and can never be renewed. Neither buys an office or an in-person visit. Consent comes before any remote service is delivered, and a visit held by telephone carries a second consent script of its own.

Book a DemoAll states
First visit
Async with conditions
Physician license
Capped telehealth credentials
Controlled drugs
Registry checks follow pain
Nurse practitioners
Full practice

Rules checked September 2026 · 21 sources cited

ONLY IN VERMONT

What is different about Vermont

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

  1. 01 · Licenses

    A license that counts patients

    26 V.S.A. 3054 issues a telehealth license good for not more than 20 unique patients located in the state across its two-year term, and a telehealth registration good for not more than 10 unique patients over 120 consecutive days. The registration cannot be renewed and may be reactivated only once every three years, which makes it a trial period rather than a standing arrangement.

    Source: 26 V.S.A. 3054

    Across the border

    • New Hampshire

      An out-of-state physician treating a patient by telemedicine is deemed to be practicing medicine under RSA 329:1-d and must carry a full license from the board, with compact reciprocity the only shortcut on offer.

      Source: RSA 329:1-d

    • Massachusetts

      Massachusetts offers no patient-count credential and does not issue licenses through the medical compact, so a clinician licensed elsewhere applies for a full state license before the first appointment.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Massachusetts

    • New York

      A practitioner treating patients across the border needs that state's own license, granted by its education department, and no capped remote permit exists there to bridge the gap.

      Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: New York

  2. 02 · Practice

    A phone call needs its own consent

    18 V.S.A. 9362 gives the telephone a consent script separate from the one telemedicine already carries. Before any billable service the patient is told that in-person and video care remain open and that taking the call today closes neither, who else is listening, whether the appointment will be billed, and that health plans do not all cover a telephone service.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9362

    Across the border

  3. 03 · Advertising

    A no-go zone around clinics

    Act 145, signed in June 2026, forbids drawing a geofence within 1,850 feet of a health care, mental health or reproductive health facility in order to identify, track, collect from or send notifications to a consumer about health data. Its consumer health data duties reach any business operating in the state with no size threshold at all, and they begin in January 2028.

    Source: Vermont Act 145, consumer data privacy

    Across the border

    • New Hampshire

      A consumer data privacy act already binds controllers there under RSA 507-H, reaching a business that handles the data of 35,000 residents in a year, with nothing said about location perimeters.

      Source: RSA 507-H

    • Massachusetts

      Two competing privacy bills sit with a conference committee and neither has become law, so a marketer works to the security regulations issued under M.G.L. c. 93H instead.

      Source: M.G.L. c. 93H, section 2

    • New York

      The standing obligation there is the SHIELD Act duty to keep reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards over private information, with no rule about advertising near a clinic.

      Source: N.Y. General Business Law 899-bb

PRACTICE RULES

How telehealth works in Vermont

Two statutes carry the operating rules. One sets consent for telemedicine, the other adds a layer for the telephone, and between them they decide what has to be said before a remote appointment may start.

  1. 01

    Consent before the service

    18 V.S.A. 9361 asks for oral or written informed consent, documented, before telemedicine is delivered. The patient hears what remote care can and cannot do, learns of anyone else participating or observing, and is told the connection meets the federal privacy standard.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9361

  2. 02

    Consent once per episode

    For ongoing care the consent is taken at the first episode rather than repeated at every appointment. Medical emergencies are excused, as are a second certification for an emergency mental health examination and a psychiatrist's inpatient determination.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9361

  3. 03

    The telephone is never imposed

    A provider may not require a patient to accept audio-only care, and where the patient asks for video or an office appointment instead the care still has to arrive on time and inside the provider's contractual commitments.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9362

  4. 04

    Store and forward counts

    Asynchronous transmission of medical information over a connection meeting the federal privacy standard is a recognized modality, though the state's own program rules decline to pay for eye and skin reviews delivered that way.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

FIRST VISIT

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

Yes, with conditions

Yes, inside limits. No statute fixes the modality of a first appointment, but nothing may be delivered until consent has been obtained and documented, and a prescription written where no physical examination happened is judged against traditional standards of care.

The gate on a first appointment is procedural before it is clinical. Modality is left with the treating clinician; the paperwork that has to come first is spelled out in statute.

  1. 01

    No fixed modality for a first visit

    Nothing in state law demands a prior office visit or a live video examination before a first prescription, so the choice of modality belongs to the clinician and is measured afterwards against the standard of care.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

  2. 02

    Prescribing without an examination

    Where prescriptions are contemplated, the state's program rules direct a prescriber to follow traditional standards of care to keep the patient safe in the absence of a traditional physical examination. That is the closest thing on the books to a written first-visit test.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

  3. 03

    Consent is the hard stop

    Because consent has to be obtained before services are delivered rather than somewhere inside the encounter, an intake that captures it after the clinical review has run the steps in the wrong order.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9361

  4. 04

    A first visit by phone owes both scripts

    An opening appointment held on the telephone carries both consent duties at once, the telemedicine explanation and the audio-only disclosures, and both have to be captured before anything billable happens.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 9362

PRESCRIBING

Prescriptions and controlled drugs in Vermont

Scheduled drugs run on the federal framework plus the state registry. What is unusual is the trigger: the query points are tied to pain therapy rather than to the schedule of the drug, so a check can be owed at odd moments.

  1. 01

    Checks follow the pain, not the schedule

    18 V.S.A. 4289 sets the query points around pain treatment: a first opioid prescription for chronic pain, a Schedule II through IV drug started for pain therapy expected to run 90 days or longer, and once a year for a continuing patient.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 4289

  2. 02

    No state list of its own for steroids

    Anabolic steroids do not appear on the regulated drug list in 18 V.S.A. 4201, so a testosterone prescription is written under the federal Schedule III rules rather than under a stricter local classification.

    Source: 18 V.S.A. 4201

  3. 03

    Paper is still lawful for some drugs

    No mandate makes every prescription travel electronically. A non-controlled product may still reach the pharmacy on paper, while controlled prescriptions follow the federal electronic prescribing rules.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

  4. 04

    Federal conditions sit on top

    Prescribing a controlled substance to a patient never examined in person rests on the federal telemedicine allowance, which is set to run only to the end of December 2026. A hormone program tracks that expiry as closely as it tracks any state rule.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

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 Vermont

Three routes reach a patient here: a full state license, a compact license, or one of the two capped telehealth credentials. The third route has no equivalent on any side of the border.

  1. 01

    Who the capped credentials are for

    26 V.S.A. 3053 opens them to a professional not otherwise licensed here who is in good standing in every other jurisdiction where they hold a credential and who wants to reach a patient located in the state using telehealth only.

    Source: 26 V.S.A. 3053

  2. 02

    What the credentials do not buy

    Neither one authorizes opening an office or seeing a patient in person. A brand planning any physical touchpoint, a blood draw or a body composition scan among them, needs full licensure whatever its patient count.

    Source: 26 V.S.A. 3053

  3. 03

    Clinician to clinician is exempt

    26 V.S.A. 3059 leaves a consultation between professionals about a patient's records, with no direct patient contact, outside the registration requirement altogether, which matters for specialist review built into a care pathway.

    Source: 26 V.S.A. 3059

  4. 04

    Eight compacts in play

    Membership runs to eight licensure compacts, the medical, nursing, psychology, counseling, social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech compacts, which widens the hiring pool for therapy and counseling roles as well as prescribers.

    Source: Center for Connected Health Policy: Vermont

  5. 05

    Nurse practitioners prescribe alone

    The state sits in the full practice column of the classification the American Association of Nurse Practitioners keeps, so a nurse practitioner may evaluate, diagnose and prescribe without a collaborating physician on file.

    Source: AANP: full practice authority brief

How Tessic Health's providers are licensed in Vermont

ADVERTISING

Marketing to patients in Vermont

Two regimes overlap, one live and one arriving. The consumer protection act and the unprofessional conduct statute bite now; the privacy act and the amended data broker rules will change what a marketing site may collect later.

  1. 01

    Deception reaches the license

    26 V.S.A. 1354 counts advertising that deceives the public, or that imposes on credulous or ignorant persons, as unprofessional conduct. Promotional copy is therefore judged against the treating clinician's credential, not only against the company.

    Source: 26 V.S.A. 1354

  2. 02

    Data brokers register here

    A business that collects and sells personal information about consumers it has no direct relationship with registers annually with the Secretary of State under 9 V.S.A. 2446, which is worth confirming before any lead list is bought.

    Source: 9 V.S.A. 2446

  3. 03

    Health data with no size threshold

    The consumer health data provisions of the coming privacy act apply to any business operating in the state whatever its size, so a small brand gets none of the relief a volume test usually gives it elsewhere.

    Source: Vermont Act 145, consumer data privacy

  4. 04

    Say whether models are trained on it

    A privacy notice will have to state whether personal data is collected, used or sold to train large language models. No neighboring state asks for that disclosure, and it lands on the notice a brand publishes rather than on the chart.

    Source: Vermont Act 145, consumer data privacy

  5. 05

    One enforcer, no private suits

    The Attorney General enforces the privacy act alone and consumers get no private right of action, with a cure window running through the middle of 2029 before enforcement can proceed without notice.

    Source: Vermont Act 145, consumer data privacy

TESSIC HEALTH IN VERMONT

How Tessic Health's providers cover Vermont

Coverage here is shaped by the patient ceilings and by the two consent scripts. Both are product problems before they are legal ones, so they are solved in the flow rather than in a policy document.

  1. 01

    Full licensure, not the capped route

    Clinicians treating patients in this state hold full licensure rather than one of the capped telehealth credentials, because a twenty-patient ceiling across two years cannot carry a continuing program.

  2. 02

    Consent is captured before the clinical review

    The intake records consent in the order the statute sets, before any clinical work starts, and the record keeps what the patient was told about the limits of remote care and about who else could see the consultation.

  3. 03

    A telephone appointment triggers the second script

    Where an appointment runs by telephone the platform presents the extra disclosures, including the standing option of video or an office visit and the billing consequences, and stores the patient's answer.

  4. 04

    Asynchronous reviews carry real inputs

    Remote reviews are built on a history and on images a clinician can act on rather than on a fixed set of questions, because prescribing without a physical examination is judged against traditional standards of care.

  5. 05

    Dispensing and price

    Medication for patients in this state is dispensed at 0% markup through pharmacies licensed to ship here, with cold-chain handling for any product that needs it.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about telehealth in Vermont

  • Yes, on a capped credential. A telehealth license covers up to 20 unique patients across a two-year term and a telehealth registration covers up to 10 over 120 consecutive days. Past those counts the clinician needs full licensure.

  • Yes. The audio-only statute adds its own script on top of the telemedicine consent. The patient has to be told that video and in-person care stay available, who else is on the call, and that not every plan covers a telephone service.

  • No. Nothing in state law demands an office visit before a first prescription. The prescriber is instead expected to follow traditional standards of care where no physical examination has taken place, which rules out a thin review.

  • Under the federal schedules. Anabolic steroids are absent from the state regulated drug list, so a testosterone prescription follows the federal Schedule III rules rather than a stricter local classification.

  • At points tied to pain therapy rather than to drug schedules. The triggers are a first opioid prescription for chronic pain, a Schedule II through IV drug started for pain therapy expected to last 90 days or more, and an annual check for a continuing patient.

  • A privacy act takes effect in January 2028. It bars a geofence within 1,850 feet of a health care facility, applies its consumer health data rules with no size threshold, and makes the Attorney General the only enforcer.

SOURCES

Rules checked September 2026 · 21 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.

All state pages →