Skip redundant pieces
Center for Telemedicine & Telehealth
 

General Clinical Services

Telemedicine referrals

Referrals come from many different sources, depending on the location of a telemedicine site in a community (hospital, clinic, school, other):

  • Patients are often referred by their primary care provider or local mental health provider.
  • Patients can also schedule an appointment directly with a specialist via telemedicine by contacting the local telemedicine coordinator.
  • In school settings, referrals can come from:
    • Parents,
    • school nurses, or
    • school psychologists involved in a child's education.

How a telemedicine appointment works

Visits with a health care provider via telemedicine occur in much the same way as a typical in-person visit with the addition of technology.

  1. On the day of the telemedicine appointment, the patient checks in at the remote site and is taken to an examination room equipped with interactive video technology.
  2. Each telemedicine site has a coordinator, often a registered nurse, whose responsibility is to remain in the examination room and assist both the patient and provider during the appointment.
  3. Instead of appearing in the room by walking in the door, the provider uses an interactive video conferencing system to connect to the remote site, and is instantly able to be seen and heard by the patient.
  4. As with an in-person appointment, providers often start by asking for more of the patient's medical history, and then asking the patient about their specific ailment.
  5. At the end of the telemedicine visit, the provider may give treatment recommendations, request a follow-up visit, order lab work, or refer to another doctor, just as with an in-person appointment.
  6. If requested, telemedicine providers send copies of their notes to the patient's primary care provider. This allows the primary care provider to stay involved in the overall care of their patient.

Reimbursement / Billing

Since telemedicine is not a separate medical specialty, it is reimbursed by many private insurance companies, Kansas Medicaid, and Medicare. However, reimbursement for services provided via telemedicine is not universal. Some insurance companies do not provide a telemedicine benefit and those that do often only cover selected billing codes.

Much progress has been made to include new billable codes, add new private insurers, and to gain wide spread acceptance of telemedicine technology. KUCTT has long been an advocate for expanded reimbursement and continues to facilitate discussions about telemedicine policy at the state level. KUCTT’s director, Dr. Ryan Spaulding, is an active member of the Kansas Telemedicine Task Force which was designed for reviewing telemedicine reimbursement policy in Kansas, implementing expanded reimbursement and responding to evolving telehealth applications.

 

For more information on clinical telemedicine services, please contact:

Ryan Spaulding, PhD

Director, KU Center for Telemedicine & Telehealth

email: rspaulding@kumc.edu

spacer