Teladoc has filed an antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against the Texas Medical Board and its members to prevent a new rule from taking effect that would restrict the practice of telehealth.

Adopted earlier last month, the rule requires an in-person visit before physicians are allowed to use telehealth technology to treat patients.

Teladoc’s case asserts that the medical board is in fact illegally limiting competition.Teladoc’s case asserts that the medical board, charged with regulating medical practice in Texas, is in fact illegally limiting competition, since Texas physicians have treated patients with no prior in-person contact for decades. In its lawsuit, the company claims that the medical board’s rule violates the law, including the Sherman Antitrust Act, which has protected free-market business innovations from cartels and monopolies for more than 100 years.

If enacted as written, the rule — which is scheduled to take effect in June — may have severe financial consequences for telehealth companies as well as patients, Teladoc says.

“It is clear that the medical board acted only when Teladoc consultations became sufficiently numerous to be perceived as a competitive threat to brick-and-mortar physician practices,” said Jason Gorevic, Teladoc’s CEO. “We can’t sit back and let a bad rule by the Texas Medical Board rob from millions of consumers and physicians the tremendous benefits of telehealth.”

The Teladoc lawsuit also notes that the Texas Medical Board ignored hundreds of officially filed comments from consumers, physicians, and businesses opposing the new rule and supporting both the efficacy and the safety of telehealth. Teladoc reports 95% customer satisfaction and 92% patient medical issue resolution.

During the last four years, as the Texas Medical Board sought to limit access to health care in the state, Texas courts have ruled in favor of Teladoc on five separate occasions.

Teladoc has more than 2.4 million members in Texas.