Dollars and Sense: Billing, Coding and Regulations

Telemedicine as defined by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences is the use of electronic information and communication technologies to provide and support heath care when distance separates its participants.1This can include live, interactive videoconferencing between patient and provider or through asynchronous means such as storeand- forward methods where a provider at the patient site can capture diagnostic information to be retrieved and interpreted by a remote site clinician at a different time. In the United States, while various forms of communication have been utilized over the last forty years for providing healthcare at a distance, it has largely been within the last fifteen years when passage of key federal legislation has led to the expansion, utilization and reimbursement of telemedicine. In many instances, telemedicine services are covered benefits, billable by governmental programs and private payers. Topics to be covered here include the regulatory and reimbursement is es surrounding telemedicine services in the United States as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).