Telemedicine insurance, as a separate insurance institution, does not exist in Georgia — and that is the main thesis of this page. What does exist is the right to insure a professional error under the Law on Medical Practice (Article 97), and in the telemedicine context this right matters particularly because the physician answers for a remote recommendation exactly as for an in-person one (Article 90). The standard of care does not change with the channel of delivery.
Professional Error Insurance — The Only Lawful Form
Article 97 says: a subject of independent medical practice has the right to insure a professional error as a result of which the patient suffered property or non-property damage. The norm, in its own wording, neither excludes nor singles out telemedicine — it covers every form of service. In practice, the "question of telemedicine insurance" therefore unfolds into three questions: what is the insurable risk (a professional error); what damage is insurable (property and non-property); and who is the insured (the subject that gives the recommendation). The answers to all three come from a single article, and that combination is precisely the frame within which the negotiation with the insurer should be conducted. The negotiation is documented position by position.
Why This Becomes Acute in Telemedicine
Article 90 regulates the architecture of responsibility: only a subject of independent medical practice has the right to receive a consultation using telemedicine, only such a subject gives the recommendation, and it is exactly that subject which is responsible for the results of the service delivered in this form. Distance thus neither reduces nor redistributes responsibility — and if the liability is identical, the need for insurance is identical too. To this, Article 94 adds: physical or material damage inflicted in the course of medical practice is compensated by the damage-inflictor under the procedure established by legislation; the physician has the right, through the court, to protect honour, dignity, the secrecy of private life and business reputation; and a patient's complaint is transmitted to the physicians' professional association before consideration by the ministry's council. Insurance does not replace this mechanism — it creates its financial backrest.