Every physician’s important priority today is to stay safe, while not shirking from their responsibilities of providing efficient and effective remote telemedicine care to COVID-19 patients.
As the number of people affected by the virus steadily rises every hour, the workload of physicians is increasing ten-fold, and making matters worse, the absence of non-clinical staff is further adding to their distress.
In the current scenario, Telemedicine is proving to be a game changer, rapidly redefining healthcare. It is facilitating people to talk to their doctors anytime, from anywhere. In a sense, improving access to care in a broken healthcare system, which is facing enormous challenges from COVID-19.
As things currently stand, there are over 275+ telehealth companies with developed telehealth strategies that go beyond connecting patients. They facilitate hospitals and health systems access telemedicine applications that make it possible for clinicians to connect with specialists for consultations on complex cases needing expert advice and support.
Need of the Hour - Managing Remotely Working Telemedicine Billing Staff
As many as 42 state governors have issued stay-at-home orders or advisories, which is making it difficult for non-clinical staff to report physically at their places of work.
Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces HIPAA, have issued guidelines on April 2, notifying the healthcare fraternity, that that they won’t impose penalties for violations of some provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule against healthcare providers and their business associates for public and health oversight activities during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.
BillingParadise, a billing company with a decade of proven experience serving the billing and coding needs of healthcare systems, has been closely following the guidelines of OCR, which essentially states, “The CDC, CMS, and state and local health departments need quick access to Covid-19-related health data to fight this pandemic. Granting HIPAA business associates greater freedom to cooperate and exchange information with public health and oversight agencies can help flatten the curve and potentially save lives.”
Remote Billing Practices for Telehealth Services
- Access to billing files and other patient records restricted to others members of the household.
- Active safeguards in place, including firewalls, encryption, and private networks to prevent any patient information from being hacked.
- Our centralised data storage systems can be accessed by billers using two-factor authentication, a code is sent to our remote billers cell phone for login, as an additional level of security.
- Our billing staff are restricted from saving any files on the hard drives of their computers at home.
- The billers home computers require an additional log in if the computer is idle for three minutes or less.
Telehealth Services Crumbling Due to Unprecedented Surge
As reports emerging from different states indicate that telehealth services are crumbling due to an unprecedented surge in patients, and hospitals too seem to be racing against time to switch routine care online, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The technical infrastructure of major telehealth providers are under a stress, not only because of the shortage of physicians, but also because of non-availability of knowledgeable telemedicine billing staff that have the capabilities of rapidly billing telemedicine encounters, and filing insurance claims , so that reimbursements can be quickly processed and the strain on their cash flow can be mitigated.
Health systems that were initially elated with the surge in demand for telehealth, are currently facing huge backlogs, because they are unable to meet the astounding volumes of patients in need of care due to the shortages of clinical and non-clinical staff.
How Virtual Telemedicine Billing & Coding Contractors Are Making a Huge Difference?
As COVID-19 cases surge and health systems face extraordinary challenges, private contractors providing telemedicine billing are being increasingly sought to offset the shortage of billing staff.
With lockdown continuing in many states, and no timeline being announced, health systems are depending on the services offered by telemedicine billing and coding contractors that have vast resources of home based billers and coders.
Being home-based, these billers and coders continue to support the telemedicine billing and coding needs of hospitals and practices, providing uninterrupted 24/7 virtual services, through secure integrated platforms that allow them access to patients’ virtual visit documentations that are billed in accordance using appropriate modifiers, following which claims are successfully filed with relevant insurance companies.
Telemedicine unquestionably is proving to be an invaluable asset not only battling the coronavirus pandemic, but also preventing the exposure of the virus to other patients and clinic staff.
BillingParadise with a resourceful support of home based billing and coding staff can make a big difference to a health organization’s efforts providing uninterrupted and efficient virtual care to COVID-19 patients.
Through our in depth knowledge and understanding of commercial insurance coverages, and local Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) guidelines for virtual services, claim denials can be avoided, while at the same time, our denial management team can effectively appeal any denials the organization receives.
