telehealth complications / complexity code?

[singasongofjoy]

I've spent about 4 hours this week in (non-billed) time trying to help clients with their telehealth. Due to the nature of the population I'm working with I probably have more of this to deal with than other practitioners, but anyway- anyone aware of any guidance on whether that might qualify as warranting a complexity code if that lasts more than like 15 minutes? Like if I have the flexibility in my schedule I'll just stay on with a therapy client trying to solve it for a while and just start the session whenever we figure out the problem, and I don't want to have to reschedule a diagnostic interview so I've just been eating the time spent on IT support by having our session technically start at a later time than scheduled but... idk. Maybe it's wishful thinking; it is a communication barrier but it isn't a language barrier. Asking our front desk staff to help any more than they already do is out for the next few months. Any guidance welcomed- thanks!

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[WisNeuro]

The guidance we have received in our healthcare system is that we cannot do this, that time spent troubleshooting IT stuff is simply eaten time. By all means, check with your payor sources, as this may vary, but I doubt it.

 

[psych.meout]

The guidance we have received in our healthcare system is that we cannot do this, that time spent troubleshooting IT stuff is simply eaten time. By all means, check with your payor sources, as this may vary, but I doubt it.

My understanding is that this is correct as well, though maybe you could use the interactive complexity code if a patient was particularly anxious, aggravated, or otherwise reactive to doing sessions via telehealth and it interfered with care.

 

[WisNeuro]

My understanding is that this is correct as well, though maybe you could use the interactive complexity code if a patient was particularly anxious, aggravated, or otherwise reactive to doing sessions via telehealth and it interfered with care.

I'd be careful with it, especially if you planned on using it a lot, in case of an audit, you may be repaying a lot of those fees based on documentation.

 

[psych.meout]

I'd be careful with it, especially if you planned on using it a lot, in case of an audit, you may be repaying a lot of those fees based on documentation.

Right, it should definitely be a rare usage. It's shouldn't just be annoyance or frustration with telehealth, but rather something interfering with the telehealth therapy being even minimally effective. E.g. they're so upset about having to do telehealth sessions that they refuse to participate like they did for they're previous in-person sessions.

 

[WisNeuro]

People's mileage may vary, but at the low RVU that code is at, not worth it to me to use in terms of the increasing audit chance.

 

[singasongofjoy]

People's mileage may vary, but at the low RVU that code is at, not worth it to me to use in terms of the increasing audit chance.

Thanks- that's a v. good point. Sigh. thanks, all.