practicing telepsychiatry from home, while a forensic fellow?

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I was just wondering, say you graduate psych residency, and are a forensic fellow, and you want to get your name out so you can build up a patient base for your future private practice...but you obviously don't have enough money to rent out office space, hire a secretary, etc. is it possible to practice telepsychiatry from your own home on the weekends as a fellow, since you already completed psych residency? Does anyone know if its even legal to practice telepsychiatry from your own home...(does the doc have to be in an office setting)?

 

[Sneezing]

The only probably I could forsee with practicing telepsych from home is liability type issues. If you have an LLC there must be an address listed for it. If you list an actual business address and just happen to be practicing from home no big deal. But if you list the LLC as your home you have now made your house a prospective assett to be attacked by lawyers in a suit. My understanding is lawyers seldom get malacious enough to go for the home or personal assetts, but if your home is the official office, then it could very well be fair game.

Otherwise, I have heard of psychs practicing from home and don't see why it would be illegal.

 

[sunlioness]

You'll run into trouble if you plan to bill insurance . . . telepsych is more often than not not covered.

 

[whopper]

to practice telepsychiatry from your own home on the weekends as a fellow, since you already completed psych residency

I know some psychiatrists doing telepsychiatry from home, so I do believe that's not a problem.

There are however several other problems you didn't include in your post that I wanted to inform you.

If you are a forensic fellow, your work hours outside of fellowship cannot exceed ACGME guidelines. Several fellowships will work you close if not over (in violation) of ACGME guidelines. You will have to inform your program director of any work outside of the fellowship, and that PD has to approve. If he or she does not approve, forget about any outside work.

Another problem is if you see someone as your patient, this will cause ethical and possibly legal dilemnas if you ever see that person for a forensic evaluation. You have to make sure the person you treat is not in a situation where there is a strong likelihood your paths will cross when you do forensic evaluations.

Forensic fellowship, if you are lucky, and the fellowship does provide this (several don't) can bring on private cases that can take up a lot of work. These may come out of nowhere. If you commit yourself to doing regular moonlighting, your life will become heck if you're doing that plus working on a major private case that is a lot of work.