CTC Medical Ethics & Patient Rights 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The ethical principle of justice in telehealth is BEST demonstrated by:
- Keeping session recordings confidential
- Ensuring underserved rural populations receive equitable access to care (Correct answer)
- Obtaining informed consent before each session
- Avoiding dual relationships with patients
Correct answer: Ensuring underserved rural populations receive equitable access to care
Justice requires fair distribution of healthcare resources and services, which telehealth uniquely advances by reaching underserved and geographically isolated populations.
Question 2: A patient requests a copy of their telehealth visit notes. Under HIPAA, the provider must fulfill this request within:
- 15 days
- 30 days (with one possible 30-day extension) (Correct answer)
- 60 days
- 90 days
Correct answer: 30 days (with one possible 30-day extension)
HIPAA requires covered entities to provide access to records within 30 days, with one permissible 30-day extension if the entity notifies the patient.
Question 3: Surrogate decision-making in telehealth is ethically appropriate when:
- A patient is temporarily unavailable for a scheduled appointment
- A patient lacks decision-making capacity and no advance directive exists (Correct answer)
- A patient's insurance requires family co-authorization
- A clinician disagrees with the patient's treatment choice
Correct answer: A patient lacks decision-making capacity and no advance directive exists
Surrogate decision-making is invoked when a patient lacks decisional capacity and there is no valid advance directive specifying their wishes.
Question 4: An oncologist conducts a telehealth consult and recommends an experimental treatment. What ethical obligation exists regarding informed consent?
- Experimental treatments require written consent only when the patient asks
- The patient must be fully informed of experimental nature, risks, benefits, and alternatives (Correct answer)
- Experimental treatments are exempt from standard consent requirements in telehealth
- Consent can be implied if the patient schedules the follow-up appointment
Correct answer: The patient must be fully informed of experimental nature, risks, benefits, and alternatives
Informed consent for experimental treatments requires comprehensive disclosure of all relevant information so the patient can make a truly voluntary decision.
Question 5: A telehealth coordinator discovers that session data is being stored on an unencrypted personal laptop by a clinician. This violates which patient right?
- The right to refuse treatment
- The right to privacy and secure handling of health information (Correct answer)
- The right to equal access to care
- The right to second opinions
Correct answer: The right to privacy and secure handling of health information
Patients have the right to have their health information protected with appropriate security measures, including encryption of stored data.
Question 6: When a telehealth patient disagrees with a clinical recommendation and chooses an alternative treatment, the provider's ethical obligation is to:
- Refuse to continue care until the patient complies
- Respect the decision, ensure the patient understands the risks, and document accordingly (Correct answer)
- Report the patient's non-compliance to their insurance
- Seek a court order if the provider believes the patient is making a harmful choice
Correct answer: Respect the decision, ensure the patient understands the risks, and document accordingly
Respecting patient autonomy means honoring competent patients' informed decisions even when providers disagree, while ensuring the patient understands potential consequences.
Question 7: Which telehealth scenario represents a conflict of interest that must be disclosed?
- A provider recommending a specialist in a different state
- A provider owning stock in a pharmacy they refer patients to (Correct answer)
- A provider conducting sessions from a home office
- A provider treating patients of different cultural backgrounds
Correct answer: A provider owning stock in a pharmacy they refer patients to
Financial interests in entities to which providers refer patients constitute a direct conflict of interest requiring disclosure under ethical and legal standards.
CTC Medical Ethics & Patient Rights 3
The ethical principle of justice in telehealth is BEST demonstrated by: