As the United States responds to the outbreak of Coronavirus, physician practices are forced to rethink ways to continue to provide care to patients who are no longer comfortable coming to the office. The strong recommendation to postpone routine visits to the doctor and avoid spending time with other sick individuals in the waiting room could pose other issues due to missed monitoring of chronic disease patients and delays of preventive health care.
The solution to continuing to provide care for these patients is Telehealth. It is easy to implement, and the reimbursement is the same as an in office visit if billed and documented correctly. In addition, Medicare has waived the originating site definition to make it safer for patients at high risk for COVID-19 as well as those with symptoms of COVID-19 patients to continue to receive care.
Quick facts to start Telehealth:
Identify who will provide Telehealth services, what types of visits you will offer via Telehealth, and when Telehealth services will be available.
Set up your Practice Management system for Telehealth. This may include creating a new location, visit type, schedule, etc.
Customize your EHR to make documentation efficient for Telehealth visits. Remember consent and education about the patients co-pay must be addressed at the beginning of each visit and documented.
Choose a Telehealth vendor that supports HIPAA compliant audio and video communications. This could be through your EHR vendor or a 3rd party vendor.
eHealth has already assisted clients with implementing Telehealth solutions. We are happy to assist you with customization in EHR and/or PM either through your current contract for services or through our virtual meetings service. We have also customized client systems to make documentation of the COVID-19 evaluation efficient through the addition of a new Reason for Visit, adding labs to the lab catalog, short list creation, as well as adding the CDC form for patients with COVID-19.