Telepsychiatry Regulations

With the declaration by the President of a national state of emergency, the Secretary of HHS issued a 1135 Waiver for “requirements that physicians or other health care professionals hold licenses in the state in which they provide services if they have an equivalent license from another state.”

Telemedicine Reimbursement: Reimbursement regulations relaxed to support telemedicine visits during COVID-19

1. Originating site and geographic telehealth restrictions are removed for the time being. Patients outside of rural areas and patients in their homes will be eligible for telehealth services effective starting March 6, 2020.
2. Qualified providers who are permitted to furnish Medicare telehealth services during the Public Health Emergency include but not limited to: Physicians Nurse practitioners Physician assistants Certified nurse midwives
3. CMS will not enforce an established relationship requirement.
4. Telehealth services are not limited to patients with COVID-19. The statutory provision broadens telehealth flexibility without regard to the diagnosis of the patient.
5. CMS is not requiring additional or different modifiers associated with telehealth services furnished under these waivers.

See more here.

Privacy: Notification of Enforcement Discretion indicating that OCR will not
enforce certain HIPAA regulations during this emergency in order to ease access
to telehealth services.

Acceptable modes of video include:

• Apple FaceTime
• Zoom Video
• Facebook Messenger video chat
• Google Hangouts video
• Skype

Visit our COVID-19 support page to get started with telemedicine at your clinic.