Prepare Now for End of Public Health Emergency, Telepsychiatry Experts Advise

In a webinar today, APA leaders in telepsychiatry urged psychiatrists to start working with their telepsychiatry patients now to prepare for the end of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11.Shaban Khan, M.D., director of child and adolescent telepsychiatry at NYU Langone and chair of the APA Committee on Telepsychiatry, and John Torous, M.D., director of the Digital Psychiatry Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and chair of the APA Committee on Mental Health Information Technology, outlined what psychiatrists need to know about the status of telepsychiatry in terms of prescribing medications, licensing, HIPA-compliant modalities for telepsychiatry, and coverage and reimbursement.“We know that the landscape of psychiatry has fundamentally changed with the rapid increase in telehealth modalities throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency,” said Khan. “Federal and state governments have some authority to maintain elements of these flexibilities, but cannot—or in s ome cases, choose not to—maintain them all. So, when the PHE ends on May 11, 2023, some flexibilities will remain on a permanent basis, some will phase out, and some remain uncertain.”During the webinar, Khan shared one important new piece of information: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will not reimburse for partial hospitalization services delivered in the patient ’s residence beyond the PHE. Partial hospitalization services can be delivered only in hos...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: CMS John Torous Medicare PHE public health emergency Shaban Khan telehealth telepsychiatry Source Type: research