On April 5, 2020 at 11:50pm CDT, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) posted an updated about telehealth services for physical, occupational and speech therapy services. If you submit claims on either a 1500-claim form or a UB-04 claim form, this is a must read article. The new update now states the following: Reimbursable codes are limited to the specific set of physical, occupational and speech therapy codes listed I hope you found this article helpful, especially if you are not a private practice. Thank you for being a Gold Member!

Last week, Aetna announced they were expanding telehealth services to outpatient therapy services until June 4, 2020. That’s the good news! Now for the not-so-good news. Try finding this announcement anywhere on the Aetna website. Lucky for you as a Gold Member, I will give you the step-by-step instructions how to access this announcement from Aetna and get the reference that you need. As an Aetna provider, you must I hope you found this article helpful. Thank you for being a Gold Member!

Here are 2 updates regarding telehealth services being expanded to outpatient therapy services. Effective March 30, 2020, NC Medicaid is temporarily modifying its Telemedicine and Telepsychiatry Clinical Coverage Policy to better enable the delivery of remote care to Medicaid and NC Health Choice beneficiaries. These temporary changes will be retroactive to March 10, 2020, and will end the earlier of the cancellation of the North Carolina state of emergency declaration or when this policy is rescinded. Click HERE to read the special bulletin and its application to outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy services. Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina

Effective April 9, 2020, this article is no longer current. Click HERE to read the latest about Cigna and their coverage of outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy delivered via telehealth. This article was updated on March 28, 2020 by adding a link to American Specialty Health and updating the place of service code to use on the 1500-claim form. In addition, it’s my interpretation that Cigna is only paying for telehealth services for physical, occupational and speech therapy submitted on a 1500-claim form by a private practice. Institutional providers (i.e. rehab agencies and hospital outpatient departments) should contact Cigna

With many states mandating insurance plans in their state expand telehealth services and reimbursement to include physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT) and speech therapy (ST) as well as several insurances expanding telehealth services and reimbursement on their own, I am being asked what CPT code(s) do I use to bill for telehealth services for physical, occupational and/or speech therapy services. The answer is the one that you do not like. It is insurance carrier specific and you have to check with each insurance carrier and yes, this includes workers compensation. Codes that I am commonly seeing insurance companies mention

On March 26, 2020, at 11:00pm CDT, Unitedhealthcare (UHC) posted the following announcement on their website:

On March 15, 2020, Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker issued an order expanding access to telehealth services and to protect healthcare providers. This order requires all Commercial Health Insurers, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and Health Maintenance Organizations regulated by the Division of Insurance, are hereby required to allow all in-network providers to deliver clinically appropriate, medically necessary covered services to members via telehealth. Click HERE to access this order. Click HERE to access the Massachusetts Physical Therapy Association COVID-19 Resource Center.

The state of Alaska has released the following Notice: Notice of the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development announces the issuance of Bulletin 20-07 to insurers regarding changes to telehealth coverage standards that are the result of emergency legislation, effective March 17, 2020. The new law may be found at: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/start.asp  . Enter the bill number HB29 to find the full text and legislative history of the bill. You may obtain a copy of the bill by contacting the Alaska Legislative Information Office. Please note that this bill has an IMMEDIATE effective date of 3/17/2020. The bill revises AS 21.42.422 to expand telehealth