Mississippi medical board denies telemedicine distance and work‑hour waivers for Visana Health CMO

The executive committee of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure on Friday denied a request from Barbara Levy, M.D., chief medical officer of Visana Health, for exceptions to the board—s 75‑mile and 20‑hour supervision rules that would have allowed her to oversee telemedicine care for Mississippi patients from California.

Dr. Levy told the committee she supervises about 25 nurse practitioners for Visana, a virtual women—s health company, and that the service sees "between 5 and 10 Mississippi patients per month." "So we are looking for an exemption for the 75 mile rule. Visana Health is a 50 state virtual women's health company. I am physically located in San Diego, California. I'm the chief medical officer. I supervise about 25 nurse practitioners," she said.

The committee pressed Levy and her attorney and staff on how care would be delivered and supervised. Board attorney Paul Barnes said Mississippi telemedicine rules require synchronous audio‑visual patient encounters and that "asynchronous only is not permissible under current Mississippi regulations." Staff also noted the board—s chart‑audit expectations: monthly audits equal to 10 percent or 20 charts, whichever is less, and asked how emergency escalations would be handled for patients treated outside Mississippi.

Levy said the practice uses Athena for shared electronic records, that she reviews every new patient chart daily, and that prescriptions and orders can be placed from the virtual clinic. She said the team does not prescribe controlled substances and that one Mississippi‑licensed nurse practitioner (Elizabeth Newsome) supports Mississippi patients.

After discussing supervision, chart review, audiovisual requirements and emergency transfer planning in closed session, the committee returned to open session and "voted to deny the request on both counts" for the distance and work‑hour exceptions. The committee directed questions about the ruling to Executive Director Ken Cleveland.

The decision leaves Visana—s service able to continue only within the limits of existing Mississippi licensure and the board—s telemedicine rules; the committee did not adopt any new rule language during the hearing.

For clarification about the denial, the committee said providers may contact Executive Director Ken Cleveland.