Bottom line
Patient-driven care is the future, and telemedicine is part of that. Patients want to have ready access to their health care providers without having to devote hours to a medical encounter that could be completed in a matter of minutes via telemedicine.
In the next article in this series, we will review the proper coding for a telemedicine visit so that appropriate compensation is gleaned. We will also review the barriers to implementing telemedicine visits. The third article is written with the assistance of 2 health care attorneys, Anjali Dooley and Nadia de la Houssaye, who are experts in telemedicine and who have helped dozens of practices and hospitals implement the technology. They provide legal guidelines for ObGyns who are considering adding telemedicine to their practice. ●
ACOG weighs in on telehealth
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) encourages all practices and facilities without telemedicine capabilities “to strategize about how telehealth could be integrated into their services as appropriate.”1 In doing so, they also encourage consideration of ways to care for those who may not have access to such technology or who do not know how to use it. They also explain that a number of federal telehealth policy changes have been made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that most private health insurers are following suit.2 Such changes include:
- covering all telehealth visits for all traditional Medicare beneficiaries regardless of geographic location or originating site
- not requiring physicians to have a pre-existing relationship with a patient to provide a telehealth visit
- permitting the use of FaceTime, Skype, and other everyday communication technologies to provide telehealth visits.
A summary of the major telehealth policy changes, as well as information on how to code and bill for telehealth visits can be found at https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/physician-faqs/~/link .aspx?_id=3803296EAAD940C69525D4DD2679A00E&_z=z.
References
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. COVID-19 FAQs for obstetriciangynecologists, gynecology. https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/physician-faqs/covid19faqs-for-ob-gyns-gynecology. Accessed April 8, 2020.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Managing patients remotely: billing for digital and telehealth services. Updated April 2, 2020. https://www.acog.org/clinicalinformation/physician-faqs/~/link.aspx?_id=3803296EAAD940C69525D4DD2679A00E&_z=z. Accessed April 8, 2020.