Telehealth Assistance for Practices
Date: April 27th, 2020Category: CORHIO e-NewsletterTopics: Transformation Support Services, Telehealth
What visits can you do via video vs phone call? Can you bill for phone calls/audio only? Can you use FaceTime to do a telehealth visit? Will the telehealth features that came with my EHR suffice? There’s a lot to consider with telehealth, we can help.
Governor Polis has issued a series of guidelines and mandates to make telehealth more accessible and viable for both patients and healthcare providers during the COVID-19 health crisis. He ordered the temporary suspension of statutes that had previously limited telehealth services, including requirements about who can perform telehealth services to Colorado residents and a provision that health plans were not required to reimburse for these activities. It’s unclear whether these statutes will be permanently reversed or what the future holds for telehealth, but our team of experts is watching this issue closely.
The following information is an excerpt from the state of Colorado’s Telehealth for Providers resource page, located at https://covid19.colorado.gov/telehealth-for-providers.
Billing
Audio-only communication is now considered a telehealth visit and is reimbursable under Medicare, CO Medicaid and commercial health plans regulated by the Colorado Division of Insurance. Providers can bill for telehealth visits at the same rate as in-person visits.
CO Medicaid now also includes chat as a telehealth visit, and is reimbursing at the in-person rate.
Technology
Under the COVID-19 emergency, providers can use audio-only communication as well as non-public facing remote communication products to communicate with patients, such as:
- Apple FaceTime
- Facebook Messenger video chat
- Google Hangouts video
- Skype
- Telephone
Private Carriers
Under direction of Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Insurance:
- As of March 8, 2020, co-pays will be waived for any COVID-19-related in-network telehealth services for those with private health insurance. See the regulation here.
- As of April 3, 2020, all carriers are required to reimburse providers for provision of telehealth services using non-public facing audio or video communication products during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. See more information here.
Need some advice?
If your practice would like guidance with telehealth, such as setting up telehealth services, identifying appropriate visits for telehealth, and properly billing for reimbursements using the latest COVID-19 guidelines, please Contact Us. We can provide guidance for including the proper information and modifiers in your billing claims, specifically for your particular payer mix.
And if you quickly stood up a solution during the pandemic, but would like to expand it or improve it, we can help you transition to the best program for your practice when medical services return to normal.