GLP-1 Weight Loss Telehealth in South Dakota

South Dakota is home to roughly 0.9 million people, and about 35.0% of South Dakotaadults have obesity. Whether treatment is appropriate for any individual is a licensed physician's decision; access should not depend on long waits or expensive in-person visits.

Cities like Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen have great healthcare networks, but obesity-medicine specialists often have months-long waitlists. Telehealth bridges that gap. From your home anywhere in South Dakota, you can complete a medical assessment and be reviewed by a SD-licensed physician, without an office visit, once we open.

South Dakota telehealth rules: South Dakota allows licensed physicians to prescribe non-controlled medications via telehealth, including compounded GLP-1 medications dispensed by state-licensed pharmacies.

South Dakota did something helpful for patients: it gathered its telehealth rules into a single short chapter, SDCL chapter 34-52, titled Telehealth Utilization by Health Care Professionals, enacted in 2019 and refined in 2020 and 2021. The licensure answer comes first. Section 34-52-2 says any health care professional treating a patient in the state through telehealth must be "fully licensed to practice in the state" (with a narrow alternative for professionals employed by a licensed health care facility, an accredited prevention or treatment facility, a community support provider, a nonprofit mental health center, or a licensed child welfare agency) and is subject to any rule adopted by the applicable South Dakota licensing body, which for physicians means the State Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners. The chapter defines the "originating site" as the place where the patient is located when care is delivered, so what matters is where you are sitting, not where the doctor is. Section 34-52-3 then spells out, in eight numbered requirements, what a proper provider-patient relationship established over telehealth must include: verifying and authenticating the patient's location and identity, disclosing the professional's own identity and credentials, obtaining consent after explaining the delivery model and its limitations, "establishing a diagnosis through the use of acceptable medical practices, including patient history, mental status examination, physical examination, and appropriate diagnostic and laboratory testing", discussing the diagnosis and the risks and benefits of treatment options, ensuring follow-up care, providing a visit summary, and using technology actually sufficient to evaluate and treat the condition under the applicable standard of care. The statute's exceptions cover on-call and cross-coverage situations, consultations with a professional who already has an ongoing relationship with the patient, and emergency treatment. On modality, South Dakota's definition of telehealth in 34-52-1(5) is broader than many states: it covers "interactive audio-video, interactive audio with store and forward, store-and-forward technology, and remote patient monitoring", so asynchronous care and audio paired with stored records are recognized forms of telehealth here. But section 34-52-5 adds a parity test that pulls new-patient care toward live video: a professional must provide "an appropriate face-to-face examination using real-time audio and visual technology prior to diagnosis and treatment of the patient, if a face-to-face encounter would otherwise be required in the provision of the same service not delivered via telehealth". In plain terms, if this visit would have needed an examination in a clinic, it needs a real-time audio and video examination online. Prescribing gets its own section. Under 34-52-6, without a proper provider-patient relationship a professional using telehealth "may not prescribe a controlled drug or substance, as defined by § 34-20B-3, solely in response to an internet questionnaire or consult, including any encounter via telephone". The section names controlled substances specifically, but the relationship requirements of 34-52-3 apply to all telehealth treatment, so an intake form on its own is never a substitute for the diagnostic steps the chapter lists. The chapter closes with informed consent (34-52-7) and medical records (34-52-8), which require the professional to maintain a complete record of your care and disclose it to you consistent with state and federal law. Worth noting is what the chapter does not create: no special telehealth registration that lets an out-of-state physician treat patients here without a South Dakota license. The only out-of-state carve-out the chapter points to is SDCL 36-2-9, a provision dating to 1953 that exempts a practitioner outside the state only "when in actual consultation with a licensed practitioner of the healing arts in this state". That covers doctor-to-doctor consultation, not direct care of a South Dakota patient. Majesta's model, a licensed physician who verifies who and where you are, examines you over live video, and documents the visit, is how chapter 34-52 says telehealth in South Dakota is supposed to work.

You can verify any physician's South Dakota license at the South Dakota State Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners.