2017 - Telemedicine and being Compliant

Nearly nine out of 10 family physicians say they would use telehealth to assist in treating their patients if they were compensated for it, according to a survey conducted by the Robert Graham Center for Anthem, Inc. and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Telemedicine is a $27 dollar billion industry set to grow to more than $34 billion dollars by 2020. By next year millions of new members will have access to covered telemedicine services by commercial payers. This growing line of business creates opportunities that require coders to be ready to code these services confidently, navigate the associated rules and reimbursement issues, and understand the emerging procedures associated with telemedicine. This one hour conference provides the listener with these coding insights and more!
The question that I get almost all of the time is "Can I bill for that and be paid"? My response: It depends! I think that we need to explore Telemedicine and the answer if we are documenting appropriately. We must be compliant in our billing efforts.
Coders and Billers will need to know these imperative new focus shifts that will enhance our ability to focus our care on the patient. With the fact that we are facing a shortage of physicians, Telemedicine is providing a means of seeing patients from a distance.