1. (a) Acupuncture therapist means licensed, certified, or unlicensed clinical staff who have documented successful completion of acupuncture training for the treatment of substance use disorder in an educational program acceptable to the Education Department pursuant to article 160 of the Education Law.
2. (b) Addiction disorder means substance use disorder, as defined in Part 800 of this Title or gambling disorder as defined in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
3. (c) Addiction services means services delivered by a certified or authorized provider or program for the prevention, treatment and recovery from an addiction disorder.
4. (d) Telepractice means the use of two-way real-time interactive telecommunication system for the purpose of providing certain addiction services at a distance.
5. (e) Designated program means a certified program which has submitted a proposed plan for the use of telepractice to deliver addiction services and has received an operating certificate designation indicating office approval.

6. (f) For purposes of telepractice, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

   1. (1) Distant site or hub site means the site at which the practitioner delivering the service is located at the time the service is provided via the interactive telecommunications system.
   2. (2) Originating site or spoke site means the site at which the patient is located at the time the service is being provided via the interactive telecommunications system, which may include the patient’s place of residence.

   3. (3) Practitioner means:

      1. (i) a prescribing professional eligible to prescribe buprenorphine pursuant to Federal regulations;
      2. (ii) other clinical staff credentialed or approved by the office, except peer advocates and student interns, who are providing addiction services consistent with their scope of practice and as authorized pursuant to this Part.
   4. (4) Telecommunication system means a dedicated secure interactive audio and video linkage system to transmit data between an originating/hub site and distant/spoke site for purposes of providing telepractice services.

As used in this Part, the following terms shall have the following meanings: