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.
What This Means in Practice
The three elements of the insurance contour converge on three levels of practical decision. First — identifying the insured: the insurance is drawn on the subject, and it is exactly the subject that must be named in the policy, because Article 90 recognizes only them as the giver of the recommendation. Second — the qualification of the risk: the insurable event is a professional error, not a technical failure as such; the link between the error and the damage must be substantiated. Third — separating the two types of damage: property and non-property damage are two different blocks of assessment, and the policy should reflect each separately. At the same time, insurance replaces no other mechanism: the complaint route stands under Article 94, and the duty of compensation rests on the damage-inflictor; the policy merely determines who pays that sum in practice.
A comparison with other systems is also useful: in some countries the insurance market creates separate products for telemedicine, but that is commercial variety, not a legal institution — in Georgia the legal basis is one, Article 97, which neither differentiates nor restricts the form of the service. This simplifies the choice: a subject has one lawful route, and its quality depends on the correctness of the policy text, not on the name of the form The insurance question in telemedicine is read through three queries: who is the insured subject, what the policy covers, and which article applies to the damage. All three answers must come from the text of the policy and not from its promotional description.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below we answer the questions most frequently raised about telemedicine insurance.
Does a separate "telemedicine insurance" exist?
No. The lawful form is professional error insurance (Article 97), covering every form of service, including remote.
What damage can be insured?
Property and non-property damage suffered by the patient as a result of a professional error (Article 97). The type of damage structures the claim itself.
Does the remote form reduce the physician's liability?
No — under Article 90 the subject that directly gives the recommendation answers for the results. Role and responsibility are defined together.
Does insurance replace legal protection?
No. Compensation and court protection proceed under the Article 94 mechanism; insurance finances that mechanism. The limits of the policy are matched to the value of the mechanism.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The Legal.ge team starts the insurance question with correct qualification: we determine which risk and which damage fall within the contour of professional error insurance, check the policy text against the requirements of Articles 90, 94 and 97, and assist both subjects in arranging the insurance and patients in pursuing a damage claim. Contact Legal.ge — insurance is not just a policy; it stands on a legal architecture whose three pillars — Articles 90, 94 and 97 — are exactly what we analyse every day. Each policy is read by its own scope.