However, when all of those users were still using doxy.me in October, we decided to ask them again; this time 90% of respondents claimed they would continue using telemedicine after the pandemic. 

So, I wanted to know what happened. What did health care providers learn about telemedicine in those months that forced them to change their minds? In order to find out, I sat down with therapist and author of the book “The Hijacked Brain,” Nathalie Concepcion. With her help, I discovered the four biggest reasons telemedicine isn’t going anywhere in 2021.

Cost 

Nathalie gave up her office when she transitioned to online, choosing to work from home and saving on rent costs. “When the pandemic hit, with everything that happened, keeping my office just wasn’t an option.” Taking your practice completely online is only becoming more possible for health care providers as advances in technology are made. It may not be possible for everybody to take their practice online, but one thing is clear to me; the cost of a telehealth platform (especially one with a free version like doxy.me) will always be more affordable than the rent.

Health and Safety

Nathalie believes she can protect the health of her patients by keeping her practice online. She learned her lesson from Covid, and plans to keep her patients safe from all contagious sicknesses going forward. “Me getting sick is one thing… To have any idea that the person in there now could leave something in my office that could make the next person sick… the domino effect is a gamble that I’m not willing to take.” Even with a possible end to the pandemic in sight, we’ve all been alerted to the dangers of asymptomatic carriers, and it’s no longer a risk that all health care providers need to take.

Reducing Cancellations

Nathalie spoke on the convenience of not having to drive to work while managing to keep her appointment numbers high. “My private office was only about a four minute drive from my home, but there’s still something really interesting about not having to get into a car… so now, when there was a storm, we didn’t need to cancel because nobody had to get on the road.” And, storms aside, there are other challenges to driving to the doctor’s office for an appointment. Some people need to travel long distances to see their providers, especially in rural areas—telemedicine overcomes this barrier for both patient and provider.

Freedom

“Once you get that you can do what you did in person online, there’s a certain freedom that I don’t know that I’m ready to give up.” We hear that, Nathalie. How many people who have been working from home for months will be ready to return to the office? I know I won’t. However, for Nathalie, who intends to keep her practice 100% online, there’s more than just freedom behind her decision. “The fact that I can go spend a month with my grandson and continue working… It’s all I could ever ask for. That alone makes me want to keep my practice completely online.” 

Talking with Nathalie was eye-opening for me. It’s easy to forget that we’re all humans, and as humans we want what’s best for us and those close to us. Nathalie made it clear that it’s people at the heart of her decision to keep her practice online. As everybody charges forward into 2021, perhaps it’s time to reflect on whether taking your practice online is the right choice for you. 

You can find Nathalie at https://www.nathalieconcepcion.com/ or on Instagram @dnathalieconcepcion.

The post 4 Reasons Telemedicine is Here to Stay appeared first on Doxy.me.

Doxy.me holds fire-side chat to discuss ways to ensure 

Who: Brandon M. Welch, MS, PhD, founder and CEO of doxy.me, a free, simple and secure telemedicine solution used by healthcare providers worldwide, participates in Reuters Total Health Forum.

When: Welch will join Reuters Events’ Jamie Harding for a virtual fire-side chat to discuss innovations in telemedicine in the era of COVID-19 on Nov. 19, 2020, 2:45 – 3:00pm EST.

What: Reuters Total Health Virtual Forum will bring together 5,000 global leaders across payers, providers, pharma, employers, investors, startups, policymakers, and the patient community to build the future of health. The annual event unites CEOs, innovators, disruptors and policy makers to set the roadmap for a system of full access and health equity. It challenges the global health industry to reimagine what’s possible, transform patient experience, and change the world.

To register or view the complete agenda, please visit: https://reutersevents.com/events/healthcare/#about

Details: Welch’s fire-side chat, entitled, “Telemedicine for All: A Lesson in Creative Destruction” will cover:

• 2020 – the year of transformation and a new provider-patient relationship
• Growth, scaling at speed and enabling healthcare the way patients want it — seamless, integrated and digitized
• How telehealth forces down costs and drives greater access, now and in the future

Bio: Brandon M. Welch, MS, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Director of the Telehealth Research and Innovation Program at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Welch uses his training in human genetics and biomedical informatics to develop innovative and user-friendly health IT solutions for personalized medicine and telemedicine. While a PhD student at the University of Utah, he founded doxy.me, an award-winning, simple & free telemedicine solution now used by hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers. His current telemedicine research focuses on expanding and improving telemedicine technology to support research, and to serve rural, underserved, and global populations.

Contact: 

Jennifer Toole

doxy.me@highwirepr.com

+1 617 461 0522

The post Doxy.me Founder & CEO Brandon M. Welch Discusses “Telemedicine for All” at Reuters Total Health Virtual Forum, Nov. 19-20, 2020 appeared first on Doxy.me.

We’ll also outline several use cases and give you some guidance on checking on your local regulations to ensure you’re in compliance with state laws.

But first, what is teledentistry?

It might sound like a new “technical” term, but the truth is that teledentistry has been around since the invention of the telephone. If you’ve advised a patient or prescribed medication over the phone, you’ve practiced teledentistry. The 21^st century has expanded the range of telehealth services, and a variety of teledentistry companies have launched to help dentists provide virtual care to their patients.

The American Dental Association defines teledentistry as a way for dentists to provide patient care and education via a remote platform. This care can be delivered via:

• Telephone calls and text messages
• Email
• Video conferencing
• Remote monitoring
• Asynchronous transmission (aka store and forward) of health information and records to medical practitioners

Thanks to ubiquitous high-speed Internet, a population that is becoming increasingly tech-savvy, a desire for time-saving conveniences, and of course, COVID-19, remote diagnosis and treatment methods are more popular than ever. When the pandemic that closed many non-essential offices and prohibited non-emergency care, telemedicine became a sole option for many healthcare professionals, and teledentistry jobs for dentists are expected to rise in the coming years.

Benefits of teledentistry for patients

Despite the inability to perform hands-on dental care, there are still substantial benefits to teledentistry:

Economics

In-person visits may be more costly than a virtual consultation. Further, they require little to no travel time or transportation expense, making them a cost-effective alternative to in-person appointments.

Convenience

Travel time to and from the dentist and sitting in waiting rooms and exam rooms can be time-consuming! According to information from the American Teledentistry Association, the average appointment time can cost an employee several hours out of their day, even though the average time seeing the doctor is only about 20 minutes.

Immediacy

Trying to book an appointment in a dental office can take weeks or months. With a virtual visit, scheduling health care becomes easier, allowing for more immediate appointments.

Safety

Recent concerns about COVID-19 have made it more desirable to limit face-to-face interactions between dentists, dental hygienists, staff, and patients. A virtual appointment can avoid unnecessary visits while also minimizing the overall amount of time that there is a risk of exposure in the office.

Rural access

Rural areas are historically underserved by medical professionals. With telehealth options, distance doesn’t matter.

Access to specialists

Finding a specialist can be a challenge, and often they’re not conveniently located. With teledentistry, a patient can see a specialist virtually and not have to worry about making a long, inconvenient trip or waiting months.

Benefits of teledentistry for dentists

Teledentistry is a win-win, with dentists also being able to take advantage of several benefits:

Reduced chair times

Virtual visits allow you to treat more oral health patients per day. The potential result is increased revenue and capacity to accept new clients.

Shared expertise

Get second opinions and specialized information and recommendations from other professionals in your network in real time. This could include both dental specialists and integrated healthcare providers.

Expanded patient radius

Being able to connect with patients in distant locales can increase your reach and the overall number of patients in your practice.

Outreach

As a telehealth provider, you can participate in mobile health clinics for schools and underprivileged areas, increasing your social contribution and getting care to those in need.

Teledentistry use cases

There are numerous ways to serve patients virtually, which allows you to focus in-person visits on emergency and hands-on care.

• Diagnose problems and provide an e-script for an antibiotic or non-narcotic pain medication. This can be done via either a phone consultation or video screen diagnosis.
• Evaluate a case to determine if an in-person appointment is necessary. This allows you to triage patients and keep your waiting room open.
• Provide information and guidance about oral care to improve a current condition or prevent one from happening. For patients that are scared to go to the dentist or have been putting off an appointment, this method can help ease them into a treatment plan.
• Provide second opinions. Patients no longer have to go from office to office to hear from other dentists. Records, x-rays, and other relevant information can be shared digitally for virtual consults.
• Get recommendations for routine care and oral health products. Instead of requiring an in-person visit, a dentist could examine the mouth virtually and make recommendations based on visual findings.
• Patients who visit the ER can be connected with a dentist instead of being sent home by the doctor who has limited oral health experience. Often, people are quick to visit the ER for tooth pain, even though hospital doctors are ill-equipped to treat oral conditions.
• However, by connecting the patient with a dentist virtually, ER doctors and dentists can collaborate on emergency treatment.

What states allow teledentistry?

Currently, the field of teledentistry is regulated at the state level. As a result, the rules vary depending on where you practice. In some states, including Texas, dentists cannot legally provide these services. According to Rule 108.8(c)(2)(C), Texas legal statute requires “documentation of the findings of a tactile and visual examination of the soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity.” Many states have not passed any formal laws around teledentistry, and there might also be local regulations about treating patients across state lines (even if it’s only digitally). To ensure that you’re in compliance with the law, make sure you check with your state’s dental board and your local public health department before adopting teledentistry in your practice.

The bottom line

The last several years have shown a rise in the adoption of teledentistry among health care professionals and patients alike. It’s estimated that about 70% of patients are comfortable with text, email, or video as a modality of seeing their healthcare providers, and this number has nowhere to go but up. We expect this dental care trend to continue and evolve. By adding this service to your practice now, you can keep up with innovations and be on the cutting edge of virtual dental care.

The post How the Emergence of Teledentistry Benefits Both Patients and Dentists appeared first on Doxy.me.

The reason it’s so important is more than a fear of zoombombing; you put a lot of trust into your doctor any time you visit. There is an inherent trust in a doctor/patient relationship.(That’s part of why HIPAA compliance rules exist.) You want your visit to feel secure and private, whether you’re walking into a doctor’s office or calling into a doctor’s online waiting room.

Three things to remember about doxy.me calls:

• All data is encrypted
• Your sessions are anonymous
• No information is ever stored

Why we’re secure

What happens on doxy.me stays…nowhere. No data is ever kept or stored anywhere, which means we have no record of who calls who.

Where other solutions utilize proprietary technology, doxy.me uses a vetted open-source technology called WebRTC to facilitate telemedicine calls. This technology has a number of security controls in place by default. This includes requiring calls to be end-to-end encrypted for both audio and video streams as well as any data stream, requiring the signaling (connection negotiation) process to utilize encryption by default with no way to turn that off, and required browser-level camera and microphone permission granted by the device user.

Doxy.me only supports the most recent versions of the big four browsers (Google, Apple, Mozilla and Microsoft) which providers update about every 6-8 weeks in response to any vulnerabilities or security concerns. Relying on the browser means end-users are in trusted hands already and doxy.me merely stands on the shoulders of those giants.

If you’re getting in touch with a doctor, there’s something on your mind. At doxy.me, we want to eliminate any privacy worries so that you can focus on your health and the excellent service that your doctor provides.

The post Three key security features for any telemedicine platform appeared first on Doxy.me.

Since telemedicine is quickly becoming the norm, why can’t you just use FaceTime or Skype to talk to your doctor? Many of us use those apps already, and there’s no learning curve involved.

The thing is, you don’t want to use those familiar apps for chats with your doctor. They aren’t secure, and this is one area of your life where you don’t want to worry about security. You know the phrase “HIPAA-compliant” and you know you want this feature in a healthcare situation. What does it mean?

There is no official government accreditation or auditing process that deems a company HIPAA compliant. (Having said that, there are plenty of ways to be fined/investigated for non-compliance.)  Any company that touches any aspect of healthcare is required to “[i]mplement policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations” and then conduct an annual risk assessment to ensure compliance, which we do. FaceTime, Skype or Zoom don’t have to meet these standards.

If you’re interested, you can check out full guidance offered here.

We’ve all seen the recent converge about Zoombombing, and now a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Zoom as well. That won’t happen with Doxy.me; we are a peer-to-peer platform, and encrypted end-to-end so video traffic goes directly between patients and providers. No servers in between ever have access to unencrypted traffic. Patients check into a waiting room and the provider selects who to start a call with. So there is no zoombombing on Doxy.me, because the provider is in full control. This is important. Providers can even set a passcode to keep unwanted people out. Another aspect of peer-to-peer: there’s no software to download or apps to install, so there’s less chance of malware or attacks. The same holds true on the other end; patients don’t have to create accounts; they simply hop into their provider’s Doxy.me room.

If a doctor asks you to use something like Facebook Messenger for a telehealth visit (or for any reason) you would be entirely within your rights to ask for a more secure platform for the interaction. In fact, patients should ensure that their medical practitioners are using a platform that is stable and HIPAA compliant. Depending on the type of account chosen, a doctor can get an account up and running on Doxy.me in as fast as five minutes.

Every aspect of the Doxy.me experience is simply better for both providers and patients.

The post Why you want a HIPAA-compliant platform appeared first on Doxy.me.

https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/medicare-telemedicine-health-care-provider-fact-sheet

Physicians may also reduce or waive cost-sharing for telehealth visits.

Q: What are the time requirements for Physicians billing telehealth and E-visit codes?

Q: Which place of service (POS) code should I use?

POS Code: 02 Telehealth

***Update – Providers have been instructed to use the original POS code the visit would have taken place in during the COVID-19 national emergency. ie. if this visit would have taken place in the provider’s office, use POS Code: 11. ***

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/place-of-service-codes/Place_of_Service_Code_Set

Q: What is informed consent and is it required for reimbursement?

“The process of informed consent occurs when communication between a patient and physician results in the patient’s authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention.”

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ethics/informed-consent

The requirement to document informed consent has been temporarily waived as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, practitioners should maintain adequate documentation wherever possible in addition to notifying patients of privacy risks and maintaining adequate safeguards over information.

https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20200323covidtelehealth.html

See our help article here for additional resources.

Q: What are the documentation requirements for telehealth encounters?

According to Steven Waldren, M.D., vice president and chief medical informatics officer for the AAFP, “‘documentation requirements for any form of virtual care (“telehealth service” or non-telehealth digital online service) are the same as those for documenting in-person care.

If a code is time-based, evidence of time must be documented,’ he said. ‘If exchanged asynchronously, videos, images and communications must be stored, for billing purposes, and retained for a duration pursuant to state regulation. Real-time (synchronous) videos, such as during a video visit, or video phone call (temporarily permissible for billing purposes) are not required to be stored.’”

https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20200323covidtelehealth.html

Q: Do commercial insurers and Medicare advantage plans reimbursement guidelines match those of CMS?

Medicare Advantage plans must follow rules set by traditional Medicare. Some Medicare advantage plans also have additional policy options that go above and beyond traditional Medicare Part B . Additionally, commercial insurance provides a vast array of benefits with some covering telehealth visits and others excluding these services.

Several commercial payors such as UHC and BCBS have offered to remove “originating site” restrictions from all Medicare, Medicaid and commercial policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We recommend you reach out to each beneficiary’s insurance company to verify which benefits are covered with regards to telemedicine.

***Additional commercial insurance guidelines for telehealth:

Humana – https://www.humana.com/coronavirus/covid19-humana-member-resources

Cigna-  https://static.cigna.com/assets/chcp/resourceLibrary/medicalResourcesList/medicalDoingBusinessWithCigna/medicalDbwcCOVID-19.html

Aetna – https://www.aetna.com/health-care-professionals/provider-education-manuals/covid-faq.html#acc_link_content_section_responsivegrid_copy__responsivegrid_accordion_11

UHC – https://www.uhcprovider.com/en/resource-library/news/Novel-Coronavirus-COVID-19/covid19-telehealth-services.html

BCBS – https://www.bcbs.com/press-releases/media-statement-blue-cross-and-blue-shield-companies-announce-coverage-of-telehealth-services-for-members***

Q: Do patients need to be established in order to bill for telehealth services?

CMS will not enforce a requirement that patients have an established relationship with the physician providing telehealth.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/cms-payment-policies-regulatory-flexibilities-during-covid-19

Q: Is there an end date for the reimbursement of telehealth services?

Effective March 6 and throughout the national public health emergency, Medicare will pay physicians for telehealth services at the same rate as in-person visits for all diagnoses, not just services related to COVID-19. Commercial insurance reimbursement timelines may vary.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/cms-payment-policies-regulatory-flexibilities-during-covid-19

Q: Do I still need to comply with HIPAA?

CMS has waived some requirements related to informed consent and has indicated the OCR will waive potential HIPAA penalties for good faith use of telehealth during the emergency. This does not waive a provider’s responsibility to comply with HIPAA in other instances and all providers are still strongly encouraged to follow all HIPAA guidelines wherever possible. “In an emergency situation, covered entities must continue to implement reasonable safeguards to protect patient information against intentional or unintentional impermissible uses and disclosures. Further, covered entities (and their business associates) must apply the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule to electronic protected health information.”

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hipaa-and-covid-19-limited-hipaa-waiver-bulletin-508.pdf

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/03/17/secretary-azar-announces-historic-expansion-of-telehealth-access-to-combat-covid-19.html

Q: Do I need to be licensed in the state of the patient I am providing care for?

Physicians licensed in one state can provide services to Medicare beneficiaries in another state. State licensure laws still apply.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/cms-payment-policies-regulatory-flexibilities-during-covid-19

Q: Do the previous geographic and rural site requirements still stand?

All geographic and rural site requirements have been temporarily waived. “Patients can receive telehealth services in all areas of the country and in all settings, including at their home.”

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/cms-payment-policies-regulatory-flexibilities-during-covid-19

https://www.uhcprovider.com/en/resource-library/news/Novel-Coronavirus-COVID-19/covid19-telehealth-services.html

Q: Are Behavioral Health, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy covered under new guidelines?

Several commercial insurance companies have updated their guidelines to allow for reimbursement of these telemedicine services. UHC has included a sample list of CPT codes for these services here. Check with your patient’s insurance carrier before treatment in order to verify benefits and coverage.

Additional CMS telehealth codes can be found here

Please let us know if you have other questions you’d like answers to and remember the most important factor is delivering care to those in need.

The team at Doxy.me is here to make sure the interruption to your practice is minimal and you and your patients ? telemedicine.

The post Telemedicine Reimbursement FAQs – COVID-19 appeared first on Doxy.me.

As the incidence of the novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly increases on a daily basis, public furor and anxiety has reached unprecedented levels. Indeed, in the United States (US) alone, the incidence of COVID-19 has escalated many-fold in just one month alone – latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) place 108 confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in the US. As of 5th March 2020, the world is placed on the cusp of a global pandemic, and the impact of this nefarious disease is being felt on financial markets and international tourism. Today, there are close to over 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, and over 3,000 fatalities reported.

The CDC has published timely reports and circulars which convey evidence-based preventative methods as regards the spread of COVID-19. These include minimizing travel outside of the home setting, avoiding large community events and mass gatherings, as well as maintaining personal hygiene standards such as frequent hand-washing and not touching one’s face and eyes with one’s hands. The efforts to curtail the spread and impact of COVID-19 have been spearheaded internationally as well; the World Health Organisation (WHO) has promulgated live-webinars and online learning modules which detail infection prevention and control measures. Several schools and institutions of higher learning have implemented online learning, and employers have been encouraged to allow workers to function off-site and perform their duties remotely.

These measures are sound, as the rationale underpinning them is to minimize human-to-human transmission; this is an important consideration as people harboring the novel Coronavirus may not necessarily exhibit symptoms. In this article, we explore the value proposition of a novel telemedical digital solution in buttressing the national and global efforts to thwart the spread of COVID-19.

Telemedicine & COVID-19

Telemedical solutions facilitate the distribution of health-related services and information across distances and ensure connected care for patients through digital communication technologies. Doxy.me is a simple, free and secure telemedicine solution which overcomes traditional barriers to health such as location, access to reliable transportation and the lack of healthcare providers. The merits of telemedicine have been explored, validated and championed in several healthcare institutions in the US alone, but how can a solution like Doxy.me be applied meaningfully in the context of COVID-19?

First, by virtue of being a telemedical solution, virtual visits conducted via Doxy.me are significantly more affordable than in-patient visits. It naturally follows that patients seen on Doxy.me can benefit from more frequent assessments by a healthcare provider as traditional barriers such as distance and transportation are eliminated.

Second, our front-line physicians today are chiefly at risk, considering that they interact with patients harboring symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection on a daily basis. Removing the physical presence of patients may facilitate a safer environment for our front-line healthcare staff. Likewise, patients who have upper respiratory tract symptoms such as a cough, can mitigate against the risk of transmission by avoiding emergency departments or busy family practice offices where the unwell congregate.

Third, the quality of care is not compromised by a virtual visit. Patients who are seen by licensed physicians on Doxy.me have the benefit of an uninterrupted and dedicated session, where a thorough history and evaluation is conducted. High-definition video and audio ensures that communication between the physician and patient is not compromised, and that the patient-physician relationship is respected. Physicians support the historical information with physiological parameters (e.g. self-reported temperature) to make informative preliminary diagnoses and assessments.

Finally, patients who have been quarantined at home because of a suspected COVID-19 infection can retain high-quality access to care via Doxy.me virtual visits.

COVID-19 – A New Dawn for Telemedicine

Never has the value proposition for telemedicine been stronger. As Dr. Brandon Welch, Assistant Professor in Biomedical Informatics at the Medical University of South Carolina puts it, “We live in a new age where we are increasingly connected virtually, but separated physically. Doxy.me provides patients with a virtual clinic experience that is strongly reminiscent of the traditional consultative model, but without the barriers associated with a brick-and-mortar clinic”.

Recently published studies suggest that COVID-19 has a far lower mortality rate than the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus of 2002. Nevertheless, risk factors for mortality arising from the novel Coronavirus include male sex, extremes of age, a compromised immune system, and multiple medical comorbidities (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, chronic obstructive lung disease and congestive cardiac failure). Patients who have one or more risk factors could be considered to be prime candidates for telemedical solutions, and are well placed to capitalize on the offerings made by Doxy.me.

Concerns regarding data security and privacy can be assuaged by the fact that Doxy.me is HIPAA compliant and uses encrypted point-to-point connections. Video consultations are not stored as data and patients can rest assured that their Doxy.me consultations are respected with the same degree of confidentiality as an in-office visit.

The post Using telemedicine for coronavirus appeared first on Doxy.me.