{"id":10377,"date":"2020-06-09T17:20:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T22:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/?p=10377"},"modified":"2026-03-13T03:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T08:18:41","slug":"experts-talk-about-telemedicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billingparadise.com\/blog\/experts-talk-about-telemedicine\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19, Telemedicine & RCM – Here\u2019s What The Medical Billing Company Executives Have Been Thinking About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let Us Discuss Telemedicine and RCM<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has disrupted and impacted the lives of every human being on the planet. Businesses have been shut down, the country is facing unprecedented numbers in terms of unemployment and the hospitals and health care systems in general are severely overloaded with a rising number of infected patients. Medical practices are either struggling to stay in business or are being forced to close down as they can\u2019t handle the ever increasing dip in patient volume & collections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During this grimm situation, telemedicine has unexpectedly surged in <\/span>demand<\/span>. Telemedicine has proven to be a sign of hope for medical practices and physicians in these trying times. For certain practices and health systems, telemedicine is the only barrier they have against closure. Whether in the form of a basic application or a software solution or a complete platform service, telemedicine is being rapidly implemented by providers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in an effort to understand the importance of telemedicine and how it is being <\/span>implemented<\/span><\/a>, why is it in demand during this pandemic and most importantly, where is this technology headed once the pandemic is over. Iam a <\/span>lead business strategist at <\/span>BillingParadise<\/span><\/a> gathered a group of top decision makers and experts from prominent medical billing companies and asked them about the scope of telemedicine & Telehealth and how it has helped them during the COVID-19 pandemic and most importantly what do they think about the billing and coding aspect of telemedicine & Telehealth services. We prioritized opinions and first-hand information from experts in the RCM field.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>

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Kate Patskovska, CPB<\/span>, <\/span>Independent medical billing consultant @<\/b>KR2 Medical Billing<\/b><\/a> had <\/span>this to say,Technically telehealth codes are supposed to be used for patients that are either unable to reach their provider or patients that have ESRD. The definition of the codes outlines that the provider can use them for established patients only. However, during COVID-19, the CMS has drastically expanded the telemedicine\/telehealth benefit to include not only the telehealth codes but also the E\/M codes, in order to include the “new” patient visits. In the last 2 months commercial payers followed suit and expanded their telehealth benefits to incorporate the new patient visits also. Some commercial payer changes included waiving member cost sharing for NON COVID-19 related telehealth visits, when seeking services from an in network provider. Also there are three other things to consider:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>