Posts Tagged ‘telehealth’
CMS Telehealth 2025 Policy Changes: Navigating the New Landscape
As we approach 2025, healthcare providers must prepare for significant changes to Medicare telehealth services. CMS has issued new regulations that will reshape telehealth coverage, marking a critical transition from the pandemic-era expansions.
Read MoreKey Trends Driving the Future of Telemedicine and Telehealth
What are the key trends driving the future of telemedicine and telehealth? COVID-19, patient accessibility, data sharing and technological advancements mean telehealth is here to stay.
Read MoreAMA Releases New CPT Code Modifier For Audio-Only Telehealth
The American Medical Association (AMA) has released new CPT code modifier 93 for audio-only telehealth services.
Read MoreCMS Telehealth Coding Presents New Challenges
As our recent article on Telehealth indicated, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officially expanded its payment protocol to cover Medicare telehealth services in March of 2020. This meant that providers had greater flexibility in providing treatment and visits, with Medicare covering treatments that they previously would not have.
Read MoreFuture of Telehealth: Survey Hints at Challenges & Trends in Telemedicine
Some recent polling shows that while telehealth has a promising future, there are still challenges to overcome.
Read MoreFour Telehealth CPT Codes Removed from CMS Medicare Coverage List
Four telehealth CPT service codes have been removed from the final CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. CMS issued a notice to clarify that the four CPT codes were added by accident due to technical errors (CMS-HHS, 2021).
Read MoreTelemedicine Services Are Here to Stay Thanks to COVID-19, Shows Telehealth Billing Statistics
The number of telehealth visits via real-time audio-video communication, as well as audio-only phone calls, skyrocketed in 2020, telehealth billing statistics show, due to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and stay-at-home orders nationwide. Nearly half (43.5%) of Medicare primary visits were done via telehealth in April, compared to just 0.1% in February prior to the public health emergency (ASPE-HHS, 2020).
Read MoreEleven New Telehealth Services Added to Medicare Reimbursement List
CMS has added 11 new services to the Medicare telehealth services list. These new services focus on specific neurostimulator analysis and programming, and cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation (CMS, 2020). There have been over 135 services added to the list of payable Medicare telehealth services since CMS started expanding Medicare coverage, including ED visits and inpatient encounters. Review our Telehealth Resource Center for the full list of revised coding and billing guidelines for COVID-19. If your facility is struggling with deciphering the revised telehealth guidelines, contact YES HIM Consulting for coding support from our HIM-credentialed experts.
Read MoreHow to Overcome These Common Challenges in Telehealth Coding & Billing
Knowing how to accurately code and bill telemedicine services has been one of the biggest telehealth problems that practices are running into due to the amount of policy changes released over a short time period and the lack of experience in documenting these services. Here are the other most common challenges in telehealth and most popular questions about telemedicine.
Read MoreCMS Guidelines for Telehealth Coding & Billing During PHE
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided to update the CMS billing and coding guidelines for telehealth or in-home provider services due to the urgency of the current 2019-Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (CMS, 2020). CMS has broadened the scope for reimbursement for virtual check-ins and other digital communications with patients to safely and effectively respond to this Public Health Emergency (PHE). In the interim, telehealth services will not be limited by program restrictions put in place by Medicare (Federal Register, 2020). Evaluation and management (E/M) service codes cover these remote and communication technology-based services performed by a physician or non-physician practitioner (NPP).
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