June 10, 2022 | By Scott Kraft, CPMA, CPC The state and federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic created wide latitude for providers to render services via telehealth in order to prevent the higher risk of in-person contact for patients, providers, and staff. Some states have taken time during…
December 3, 2020 | By Holly Cassano, CPC, CRC There are not many positives that are generally born out of a Pandemic, but for the COVID 19 Pandemic, there have been a few and one of them is the creation of the HRSA Uninsured Portal. I call it a provider “Godsend” as it has…
August 13, 2021 | By Grant Huang, CPC, CPMA With Americans having widespread access to effective vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic is finally fading into the background for most practices, but the issue of compliance is once again rearing its multi-faceted head. This time, after billions of dollars in federal spending as part of pandemic…
May 7, 2021 | By Frank Cohen, Director of Analytics and Busines Intelligence It looks like the feds are moving quickly into recoupment audit mode in regards to telehealth and other services reported during the COVID-19 declared Public Health Emergency (PHE). Starting sometime the end of the first quarter of 2020, HHS came out…
March 20, 2020 | By Shannon DeConda, CPC, CPC-1, CPMA, CEMC, CMSCS Step 1: Telehealth Consent In order to conduct a patient encounter as a telehealth service, the patient must consent to this modality. The consent should include the patient’s explicit agreement to being treated via telehealth rather than in a face-to-face encounter. Each…
April 3, 2020 | By Sean Weiss, CHC, CEMA, CMCO, CPMA, CPC-P, CMPE, CPC Happy Friday – we made it through another week of change, after change, after change. There have been a lot of side-stepping and dancing around to get to where we are now. I have told clients for weeks that there…
May 15, 2020 | By Stephanie Allard, CPC, CEMA, RHIT Over the past month, I have heard comments wondering why we would continue to audit during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). Many commented that with so much going on, there is not enough time, and the encounters are now telehealth so what is…
June 5, 2020 | By Scott Kraft, CPMA, CPC During the rapid pivot to telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest priorities has been staying on top of the array of CMS and private payer rules to ensure these services were payable. These rules included the clear need in most instances for…
June 26, 2020 | By Holly Cassano, CPC, CRC As we move through the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us in health care are finding that many opinions and much guidance exists on the topic of telehealth/telemedicine, from many various sources. At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the rules literally seemed to change…
October 9, 2020 | Aimee L. Wilcox, CPMA, CCS-P, CST, MA, MT, Director of Content, innoviHealth If you are an active coder or auditor, you are likely keenly aware of the abundant changes to healthcare laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines surrounding HIPAA, coding, reimbursement, and especially to the integration and rapid expansion of telemedicine…