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8: Billing and Reimbursement for Telemedicine

DOI:

10.1891/9780826172921.0008

Abstract

Medicare and Medicaid plan usually reimburse for digital health services differently than commercial payors. Some commercial insurances do not cover digital health services at all, while others offer incentives for these care modalities (reduced co-pay or no copay, reduced deductible). Parity laws are acts of legislation that force payors to pay for telemedical services as they would for an in-person exam. There are parity laws in almost all the states. The Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group (DMPAG) is a subsidiary of the American Medical Association that assists with coding and helps to improve reimbursements. Guidelines for billing telemedical evaluations are similar to in-person evaluations. The two main differences are billing based upon time spent and documenting it as a telemedical evaluation, the platform used and the type of visit. While in-person evaluation and coding usually rely on systems evaluated, telemedical assessments can be billed based upon time spent with patients.