Doctor holding smartphone for electronic prescription per telemedicine prescribing laws

Telemedicine Prescribing Laws Inch Forward

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More than a decade after the passage of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, the US Drug Enforcement Agency is finally taking steps to fulfill a task assigned by the legislation: the creation of a special registration process for telemedicine prescribing laws by which healthcare providers can apply for authorization to prescribe controlled substances to new patients they have never met in the office, instead examining them only via the “practice of telemedicine.” This long-overdue measure has been welcomed by organizations including the American Telemedicine Association and the Center for Telehealth & e-Health Law, who have long been lobbying the DEA to take action. Read more

Campus telemedicine – students on smartphones

Campus Telemedicine or No Medicine?

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College students—famous for their late-night cram sessions and 2 a.m. pizzas—have never been the model of perfect health, but with campuses starting to embrace telemedicine, this could soon change. Today’s students, Generation Z, are the least likely generation to visit a primary care doctor; only 55 percent even have a designated primary care physician, and 1.7 million college students are uninsured. To entice students to seek care more readily when it’s needed, telemedicine start-up 98point6 is partnering with Ohio Wesleyan University to offer students free campus telemedicine services. Read more

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Telemental Health Crosses State Lines

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Over the last several years, the growth of the telemedicine industry and its elimination of geographic barriers have highlighted the impracticality of requiring medical care providers to be licensed in every single state in which their patients live. To overcome this expensive and time-consuming administrative work, several states have banded together to create licensure compacts in which the participating states recognize each other’s medical licenses as being valid within their borders. Perhaps the most well-known agreement is the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) for physicians, although other types of medical providers have formed interstate bonds as well. Now, telemental health is about to receive a boost in popularity: The Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT) is almost ready to go live. Read more

Two doctors reviewing brain scans on hospital computers

Telemedicine Reimbursement, Savings, and Care—Oh, My!

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has accepted five new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes to allow physicians to be reimbursed for telemedicine specialist consultations and to expand remote patient monitoring conducted via telemedicine. The telemedicine reimbursement codes were originally proposed by the American Medical Association; now approved, they took effect on Jan. 1, 2019. Read more

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Using Addiction Telemedicine to Enhance Care

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Every day, an estimated 115 people die from opioid abuse. To address the substance abuse epidemic—of opioids and other drugs–healthcare providers develop treatment plans that combine addiction control with behavioral and psychiatric care in a personalized package. Traditionally, treatment has centered around group therapy and in-office visits. Now, with the rise of telemedicine, providers can now work with patients at any time and place and can see first-hand aspects of the patient’s daily life. Read more

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Telehealth for Autism Shows Promise

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Raising a child with autism can be challenging but rewarding, say their parents, but telemedicine is beginning to show itself to be a valuable tool. Whether it’s being used for remote assessments to diagnose autism or remote in-home therapy, telehealth for autism is currently being studied—and the preliminary results look promising. Read more

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Telepsychiatry Program Combats School Violence

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In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School and Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting, a Texas telepsychiatry program was launched to help schoolchildren and teens deal with potential mental health issues that could lead to later violence or suicide. School violence may get all the attention, but suicide is the second most common cause of death among American teenagers. Both situations often stem from untreated mental or behavioral health issues among children and teenagers. In the years since those shootings, at-risk students at these Texas schools have received the psychiatric care they need and, in some cases, have even been removed from the school setting amidst safety concerns. Read more

Road sign announcing the next exit, psychiatry

Telepsychiatry Relieves Shortage in Idaho

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Thanks to an ongoing shortage of psychiatrists in Idaho, patients are often unable to seek help for mental or behavioral health issues until the condition has become severe enough to require hospitalization. In an effort to provide relief, Saint Alphonsus Health System has partnered with the University of Washington to create a telepsychiatry program, bringing psychiatric residents virtually to rural Idaho and Oregon. Read more

ATA Celebrates Halloween Telemedicine Treats for Medicare Beneficiaries

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WASHINGTON – Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 — Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rulemaking that includes significant additional coverage for telemedicine services.

“This Halloween, Medicare beneficiaries got an important treat for home care of chronic care management, remote patient monitoring of chronic conditions, and other services when provided via telehealth,” said Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association. The association has been asking CMS for such coverage for over five years.

Buried in an almost 1200-page rulemaking about 2015 Medicare payments to physicians and practitioners were provisions paying for remote chronic care management using a new current procedural terminology (CPT) code, 99490, with a monthly unadjusted, non-facility fee of $42.60. Also, Medicare will pay for remote-patient monitoring of chronic conditions with a monthly unadjusted, non-facility fee of $56.92 using CPT code 99091. Prior to this, Medicare did not pay separately for such services, requiring that such billing be bundled with an “evaluation and management” code.

Also in the rulemaking were seven new covered procedure codes for telehealth including annual wellness visits, psychotherapy services, and prolonged services in the office.

“It has been a long time coming, but this rulemaking signals a clear and bold step in the right direction for Medicare,” added Linkous. “This allows providers to use telemedicine technology to improve the cost and quality of healthcare delivery.”

Read the full document here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=CMS-2014-0094-2363. To learn more about telemedicine and public policy, visit http://www.americantelemed.org/policy/overview-news.

About the American Telemedicine Association

The American Telemedicine Association is the leading international resource and advocate promoting the use of advanced remote medical technologies. ATA and its diverse membership work to fully integrate telemedicine into healthcare systems to improve quality, equity and affordability of healthcare throughout the world. Established in 1993, ATA is headquartered in Washington, DC. For more information visit www.americantelemed.org.

Media Contact:
Mimi Hubbard
mhubbard@americantelemed.org
202-659-7616

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swyMe – Expanding Telehealth, Mobile, Cloud

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reprinted with permission by Mobile Cloud Era


Photo: By Tim Evanson, [CC BY-SA 2.0], at Flickr

In a merger of telehealth, mobile and cloud, Massachusetts-based swyMe is offering video conferencing in ambulances. The basic system includes three cameras in the vehicle: a standard “fish eye” 360º camera mounted high on the ambulance wall; a webcam attached to a touch screen monitor; and a handheld HDTV 720p IP camera.

The combination of the three affords a remote physician a view of the overall situation in the ambulance, the ability to communicate face-to-face with attending EMS workers and capability to zero in to close-up views of the patient. The system is HIPAA compliant and uses AES256 security.

swyMe COO Jeff Urdan explained that Read more