On December 14, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled in favor of Teladoc, Inc. by denying the Texas Medical Board'smotion to dismiss Teladoc's antitrust suit against the Board.

Teladoc, the largest telemedicine service provider in the U.S., filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the Board in April 2015, as discussed here. Teladoc's complaint alleged, among other things, that the Board's Rule 174, requiring an initial in-person meeting between a patient and a physician before the patient and physician can interact remotely by videoconference, violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

The court's latest ruling rejected each of the Board's arguments and denied the Board's motion to dismiss Teladoc's suit. The court, following a recent U.S. Supreme Court case (discussed here), also ruled that the Board's actions were not protected by sovereign immunity because the State of Texas lacks sufficient control over the Board.

According to a Teladoc press release, this latest ruling is the seventh time in the last four years that various Texas courts have ruled in favor of Teladoc against the Board.

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