Telehealth Service Expansion to Stem the COVID-19 Pandemic

As part of the government’s efforts to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has expanded the use of telehealth services. This enables residents to receive health services without having to travel to an outside healthcare setting. As part of this process, it was also announced that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will exercise enforcement discretion and waive penalties for HIPAA violations against healthcare providers that serve patients in good faith through everyday communications technologies, such as FaceTime or Skype, during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.
On March 27, 2020, CMS released a Telehealth Toolkit to provide guidance to providers and includes information for:

• Choosing a Telehealth medicine provider included links to two resources
  • Telehealth Vendor Fact Sheet
  • Service Provider Directory
• Initiating a telemedicine program
•  Monitoring patients remotely
• Developing documentation tools

This information and more can be found on our website and risk management portal to help senior living communities prepare and be protected. Senior living industry info can be found under the “Senior Living Industry Info” tab of the resource center. If you have any questions, please contact our team of insurance and risk management specialists.