Georgia Telehealth Compliance for Cash-Pay Clinics: The Telemedicine License, Exam Rules and the New Ketamine Clinic Law

Licensure and the Telemedicine License

Georgia's statute requires a Georgia license or a telemedicine license for acts affecting a Georgia patient by electronic means, and the out-of-state practitioner cannot hold ultimate authority over care. The telemedicine license, created in the same law, is available to a physician with a full unrestricted license in another state and no discipline anywhere, and it is telemedicine-only. The Board lists an initial fee of $500 and renewal of $230, issuance is discretionary, and the DEA treats the license as restricted, so the Board suggests a full license for DEA-registered physicians. Georgia has a rule for the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.

The Exam Rule

Board rule 360-3-.07, in the 2020 proposed text we could read, says a Georgia-licensed provider must have personally examined the patient or be able to examine the patient with technology equal or superior to an in-person exam, and must make diligent efforts toward an annual in-person exam. Board minutes from February 2024 indicate that after May 2024 a physician must return to the first in-person contact standard, without grandfathering. We could not confirm how the Board applies the equal-or-superior alternative or the current adopted text of the rule. The rule is silent on store-and-forward and questionnaires, and secondary sources say it bars prescribing controlled substances for pain by telemedicine.

Consent

The rule does not set a consent form but requires giving the patient the provider's name, credentials, emergency contact and follow-up instructions.

Prescribing and the Ketamine Law

• PDMP: a check is required before the first prescription of a benzodiazepine or Schedule II opioid and every 90 days after, according to a secondary summary, and DEA-registered physicians must register with the PDMP within 30 days of licensure.
• Ketamine clinics: a 2026 law, HB 717, will require clinics offering psychedelic-assisted treatment, including IV ketamine, to be licensed by the Board starting July 1, 2027, with physician or CRNA owners, a PDMP review before administration, Board rules due by the end of 2026 and on-label FDA uses excluded. The text is clinic-based, and we could not confirm how it treats at-home telehealth ketamine.
• Testosterone: we found no Georgia-specific testosterone rule.

NPs and PAs

Nurse practitioners work under a nurse protocol agreement and physician assistants under a job description. The Board rule requires the physician to document that telemedicine is within scope and that the NP or PA is competent. Rules effective in May 2026 cap a physician at eight combined APRNs and PAs, APRNs are barred from Schedule II except limited emergency hydrocodone or oxycodone, and a physician may not be employed by the APRN the physician supervises.

Corporate Practice

The Georgia Composite Medical Board's May 2026 position statement on IV hydration therapy reads the bar on a physician being employed by the person they supervise broadly, to cover direct or indirect compensation including through third-party matching companies. It does not mention telehealth or management companies, according to a law firm summary. We found no Georgia authority on telehealth-company corporate practice or friendly-PC structures, but the Board's direction of travel is toward closer scrutiny of who pays supervising physicians.

Disclaimer

This article is general educational information, not legal advice. Telehealth rules change often and differ by state, and parts of this summary rest on secondary sources, so confirm specifics with health care regulatory counsel in the state before you rely on them.