Key takeaways

• The investigation commenced by the MOH illustrates that the MOH is vigilant and prepared to take enforcement action against those who are in breach of the HCSA and to publicize details of parties who are allegedly in breach.
• To avoid regulatory penalties and adverse publicity, healthcare service providers and, in particular, telemedicine services providers, should ensure close compliance with applicable regulations and guidelines.

Background

The MOH regulates the provision of telemedicine services and requires telemedicine service providers to obtain an outpatient medical service license under the HCSA.

The MOH has been fairly active in its enforcement against errant telemedicine service providers, as may be seen from our February 2024 client alert, which sets out details on how the MOH reported its investigations against a clinic for allegedly issuing medical certificates without providing any audio or video consultations.

In its press release of 16 August 2024, the MOH reported that the offending clinic was likely to have routinely engaged in clinically and ethically inappropriate practices in providing its outpatient medical services. The MOH's investigations revealed the following:

• Short teleconsultation duration: There were numerous teleconsultations involving video calls of one minute or less in duration, with the shortest being one second. This raises concerns about the safety and quality of medical care provided to patients.
• Multiple issuances of medical certificates: The same patients were being issued multiple medical certificates over a short period of time. In one instance, 19 medical certificates were issued to one patient in a month.
• Questionable and poor case note documentation: Corresponding case notes contained detailed information that were inconsistent with the duration of the teleconsultation. In other instances, case notes were extremely sparse, which compromised the continuity of patient care.

The MOH has directed the clinic to stop the provision of outpatient medical services via teleconsultation until further notice.

The MOH also added that it would be auditing and monitoring other licensed providers of outpatient medical services via teleconsultation for compliance with regulatory requirements.

The potential penalties of not complying with statutory obligations under the HCSA and applicable regulations as well as relevant licensing conditions are stringent. The penalties include, amongst others, revocation of the license, suspension of the license, and/or a financial penalty of up to SGD 10,000 for each contravention of a license condition. Company officers may also be found liable for the offense.

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