The process of billing can be a great hassle for providers, and risky business. Often telehealth providers do not know how to correctly bill for their services and sometimes create legal and ethical issues by billing incorrectly. Debbie Duran the owner of Mental Health Billing & Consulting in Louisiana shares from her 28+ years of experience billing for mental health providers.
The Office of Inspector General is recommending that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) more closely review telehealth claims for adherence to requirements and offer education to providers to increase awareness of those requirements.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS published their final rule for 2018 stating the changes to the Medicare physician fee schedule(PFS) and other Medicare Part B payment policies.
Click here to see the final rule.
Here is a summary of the important updates for behavioral health providers. However, DO NOT consider this as guidance for your Medicare billing. We advise that you consult directly with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for guidance and to ensure the accuracy of your billing practices.
Insurance fraud is a serious matter! It is very unfortunate when telemental health providers find out that they have been committing insurance fraud without even knowing it.
At Telehealth Certification Institute we often hear the following questions:
In this video our CEO, Raymond Barrett, interviews Michelle Inauen LPC MFT who provides counseling by both video and phone. Michelle Inauen shares how she got started in distance counseling, the services she offers to individuals, couples and families. Michelle also provides some advice to other clinicians looking to get started in providing virtual counseling.
The Florida legislature has passed Chapter 2019-137, Laws of Florida. Signed into law by the governor and effective July 1, 2019, Chapter 2019-137 clarifies the definitions for health care providers who use or plan on using telehealth services in Florida, as well as the steps needed to provide ethical, legal and competent services within the state. The full text of Chapter 2019-137 can be downloaded on the home page http://www.flhealthsource.gov/telehealth/.
It is now mandatory for practitioners who are licensed out-of-state and do NOT hold an additional Florida license to be registered with the state in order to perform telehealth services for patients located in Florida. (Licensed Florida providers are already allowed to practice telehealth with patients they would be able to see face-to-face.)
Finding the right therapist for yourself or someone else can be challenging for anyone. However, finding a psychotherapist for someone who is living abroad can be even more difficult. To help provide some guidance with this task, our CEO, Raymond Barrett, interviewed Josh Sandoz, LMHC, who is curator of the International Therapist Directory.
Presenting at the Licensed Professional Counseling Association of North Carolina (LPCANC) this year was a new experience for us. One of our alumni, Tanya Guinn, LPC, both a telemental health provider in North Carolina and a member of the LPCANC, took initiative with the idea of VIRTUALLY co-presenting on TeleMental Health at the LPCANC Conference with our CEO, Raymond Barrett.
