patient intake telehealth

By: Susan St. John

So you’ve been approached by a telehealth company to provide telehealth services to patients. What do you do next about this telehealth contract opportunity? Providing these services can be an opportunity to assist patients who cannot make it to a physician’s or practitioner’s office, and it’s an opportunity for a potential source of income. However, before you sign on the telehealth contract’s dotted line, you need to do a little background checking, a little investigation, to ensure the telehealth company you sign with is compliant with state and federal laws for providing telehealth services. In other words, perform due diligence in determining if this is the telehealth company for you.

So what should you look for in a telehealth company as a physician or practitioner presented with a telehealth contract?

By: Karina Gonzalez

Most commercial health plans require that prior to admission to a substance abuse treatment facility, patients must have a face-to-face individual assessment by a licensed behavioral health clinician 72 hours prior to admission, to determine if the admission is both medically necessary and clinically appropriate. Many potential patients reside in states outside of Florida (or a given destination), so complying with a face-to-face requirement when a patient is in another state before admission is a challenge. Telehealth is being increasingly utilized to evaluate these out-of-state patients and perform the necessary face-to-face evaluation in advance of arrival at a given facility. However, as with anything healthcare, there is a right way and a wrong way to implement this technology. In the coming weeks, we’ll be discussing many of the facets involved from telemedicine claims overpayments to Medicare telehealth law issues.