Telehealth and Mental Wellness

Telehealth, no doubt, has been peaking for weeks now, and HIPAA flexibility has included specific technology applications acceptable for the practice.

Telehealth service availment has been increasing massively in the past several weeks. Some insurance companies from a mere 200 claims processing per day in February, according to a leading US insurer, it has now grown to a staggering 38,000 claims per day. This is equivalent to about 1 million claims in the past nine weeks.

Mental health services that include virtual behavior services are taking half of the overall claim types available by members, which is evidently due to Covid-19. The pandemic’s impact on utilizing Telehealth is expected to continue for many months to come, and even after the new normal begins.

This is the perfect time to increase providers who will render their expertise using digital behavioral-health and other medical services. Such growth in Telehealth is a good indication that health issues arising from current health problems are welcome and treatable with modern-day technology channels. This is also a good indication that people are seeking help and treatment to prevent neglect or silent prevalence of possible health problems in the absence of in-person consultation. Insurance coverage for Telehealth has significantly been more open, and in fact, there is an on-going HIPAA Flexibility for the use of Telehealth.

 HIPAA Acceptable Telehealth Medium

According to the HHS.gov “HIPAA-covered health care providers may, in good faith, provide telehealth services to patients using remote communication technologies, such as commonly used apps – including FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Zoom, or Skype – for telehealth services, even if the application does not fully comply with HIPAA rules.” There are however limitations with the use of platforms other than mentioned like Twitch, Facebook Live, and TikTok are not allowed. for more information, you may visit www.hhs.gov