Telemedicine Consent
What you are consenting to
A teleconsulta sanitaria — a medical consultation conducted by video with a physician registered with the Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Costa Rica, who is in a different place from you.
Costa Rica regulates this explicitly. Decree No. 44363‑S, in force since 2024 and amended by Decree No. 44485‑S, sets out what may and may not be done this way. What follows is that decree applied to this clinic.
How the consultation works
- You will be sent a link for a scheduled video call. You need a private place and a reasonable connection.
- The physician is required to be somewhere private too.
- Your identity will be verified at the start.
- Your laboratory results are reviewed with you, and you should have them to hand.
- A clinical record is written. You are entitled to a copy.
What cannot be done remotely
Article 7 excludes these absolutely, and a physician declining them is following the law:
- Anything requiring a physical examination. Where the physician judges that you need to be examined, the consultation stops and you are referred.
- Certificates of health status, birth or death certificates, aeronautical certificates, and dictámenes for a driving licence or a firearms permit.
- Starting a controlled medicine. Psychotropics and narcotics require a prior in‑person consultation recorded in your file, and in the private sector must go through the national Receta Digital system.
Teleconsultation is defined in Article 5 as complementary. It does not replace in-person assessment, and whether your particular problem suits video is to be agreed between you and the physician rather than decided for you.
Risks and limitations you are accepting
Stated plainly, because consent that does not name the risks is not informed:
- No physical examination. A physician who cannot examine you may miss something an in-person assessment would have found.
- The assessment depends on what you report and on records you provide. Incomplete or inaccurate information produces an incomplete assessment.
- Technology fails. Calls drop, video freezes, audio breaks.
- Transmission of data over the internet carries a residual risk despite encryption.
- Delay. This is a scheduled service, not an urgent one.
If the connection fails
Article 8 requires us to agree this with you before starting, under the principle of no abandonment. Our arrangement: we re-attempt the video connection, and if that fails we continue by telephone on the number you gave us. If neither works the consultation is rescheduled at no additional charge.
Prescriptions
If a prescription follows, Article 14 requires it to carry the prescriber's name, profession, specialty and professional code, and your name, identification, age, the date, and your weight and height. A digital prescription must be signed with a valid digital signature certificate.
Sending you a photograph of a hand-signed prescription is expressly prohibited, and we will not do it. If you receive one from any provider, something is wrong.
Your data
Handled under Law No. 8968 and set out in full in our Privacy Policy. In summary: it is held for clinical use, not sold or shared commercially, accessible only to authorised staff, and retained for the ten years Costa Rican law requires of medical records.
Consultations are not recorded by us. If recording were ever proposed, it would require your separate specific consent.
Consent, and taking it back
Your consent must be given before or at the start of the consultation, in writing or digitally, and it is revocable at any moment — including part-way through, without explanation and without affecting your right to care by other means.
The document you sign will carry your full name and identification, the date, your signature, your current diagnoses and the risks above. If what you are asked to sign is a terms-and-conditions page, that is not informed consent in the sense this decree means.
For patients under 18
Article 13 sets this out. For a patient under 12, or an adult legally unable to consent, a legal representative signs. For a patient between 12 and 18, a separate asentimiento informado is required from the young person themselves and goes in their record alongside the representative's consent.
Accessibility
The decree requires that this information be given in formats appropriate to your needs. If you need it another way — larger text, in Spanish, read aloud, or with an interpreter — tell us before your appointment and we will arrange it.
Emergencies
This service is not for emergencies. In Costa Rica, call 9‑1‑1. Do not wait for a video appointment if you are acutely unwell.
Oversight
Compliance with this decree is supervised by the Ministry of Health under Article 18. Professional conduct is overseen by the Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos. You may complain to either, and to us first if you would rather.
Last updated 19 October 2026. Cura Vida Clinics Costa Rica LLC Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada.