Telehealth and Insurance Best Practices
This week we had the pleasure of talking with Gordon Brewer on his podcast about #telehealth and best practices when taking insurance.
You can listen to the full interview here!
During this podcast, Gordon and Jeremy talk about pitfalls in billing telehealth claims, telehealth services as the new normal, how to collect from patients, and how to go about accepting insurance.
Telehealth Claims
How can you determine whether your patient’s copay will be waived?
There are some excellent resources, but the best way to do that right now is to call the insurance companies. You’re going to want to say is telemental health is covered on an outpatient basis for this patient. Then, give them the insurance information and the date of birth because that will lead the provider representative to tell you what they have.
What we’re seeing as a trend is if the patient had telehealth benefits into their benefits before COVID-19, they are covered at one-hundred percent. If they didn’t have those benefits, the patients still have copays and deductibles applying through this time. It’s confusing for many people, but as providers, we can do the best job we can by being as clear as possible. We want to be as transparent as possible with that.
Telehealth is the New Normal
Providers can do a good job as far as lobbying with their government officials on telehealth being the new normal. Telemedicine is effective, and you can reach more people. Jeremy knows that insurance companies often get a bad rep, but this has been an enormous agenda item for them for a long time.
Send a letter to your governor, your senator, and congressmen to push for it. Telehealth can also make the lives of the private practice owner easier too. Telehealth will make it more convenient to choose your hours, and therapists can even be available for clients who are overseas.
Collecting From Patients
People need to start collecting from patients – you are contractually obligated to receive it. If the person is out of work, you still have to collect the copay and deductible. As a business owner, you need to treat people the way you want to be treated. If a patient is short on cash, the provider should tell the patient they owe for the service. However, you can offer an extension on their debt.