Telehealth/Telemedicine/Telephonic/Telephone Services (OKHCA Only)

Telehealth/Telemedicine Services (OKHCA Only)

The Oklahoma Healthcare Authority has specific guidelines for providing remote (telemedicine/telephone) services.

Telemedicine Services

Telemedince services are like normal services except the service is provided via video conference instead of being face to face. In particular the rates are the same. In ChartCaddy telemedicine services have "Telemedicine" in the name of the service.
  1. In ChartCaddy you need to add telemedicine services to your client service plans. We have a way to mass update all your active client plans to add telemedicine services, so if you want us to do that for your organization please let us know. There really isn't an issue mass adding new services except when the extension comes up you may have to remove them if you don't want them on the plan for a particular client.
  2. If you update a client's plan with telemedicine services and then bill for the new services then we highly recommend that you have the client  sign a new signature page. We don't think the OKHCA should care how you provide a service as long as their guidelines are met, but knowing the OKHCA they probably will want you to get a new signature page signed by the client.
  3. In addition to a new signature page the client client must sign a telemedicine consent form. One is included in the stock ChartCaddy intake packet if your organization uses that feature.
  4. The OKHCA also says that providers are encouraged to create internal policies and procedures regarding the use of telehealth so that all staff understand its appropriate use. Documentation in the client’s record should either reference the provider’s internal policy or otherwise indicate why telehealth was utilized if the service was not provided in person.
  5. The main difficulty using telemedicine with the OKHCA is they say that you must use "secure video communications" but as far as we know they will not provide a list of acceptable mechanisms. The two we have heard that people are actually using is Signal (https://signal.org/) and doxy.me (https://doxy.me/). It is possible that other options are acceptable but it is pretty much impossible to get a definitive answer from the OKHC about that.

Telephonic Services

There is a difference between the telephonic (telephone) services described in this section, and the telemedicine (video) services described in the section above. Telephonic services are services provided by a regular phone call, and is very limited. Telephonic services must be provided by a qualified non-physician health care professional to an established patient, parent or guardian. Telephonic services should A) not originate from a related service provided within the past 7 days, B) lead to a service within the next 24 hours, or C) lead to a service with the soonest available appointment. Telephonic services should not be a follow up or call related to another service. At this time it is not clear if telephonic services have to be documented in the service plan or what the credentialing requirements are. In ChartCaddy the following telephonic services are available:

Code
Rate
Name
98966
$12.67
Consultation - Telephone 05-10 Min
98967
$24.75
Consultation - Telephone 11-20 Min
98968
$36.52
Consultation - Telephone 21-30 Min