Cleary Gottlieb earned a significant victory on behalf of Teladoc in its dispute with the Texas Medical Board involving federal antitrust and constitutional claims. Teladoc is challenging the Texas Medical Board’s rules that restrict telemedicine and prohibit Texas physicians from treating a patient without a prior in-person physical examination.
On December 14, 2015, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied the Texas Medical Board’s motion to dismiss Teladoc’s federal antitrust and constitutional claims. He rejected all of the board’s arguments as failing to comport with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, including the February 2015 decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission.
This is the first Sherman Act claim against members of a state licensing board to defeat a motion to dismiss since North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners.