Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Park Sports Physical Therapy offices have closed in compliance with social distancing guidelines.
However, we are still conducting our physical therapy sessions remotely, via Telehealth sessions. It is important to us that our employees and our clients remain safe and healthy during the current crisis, while also being able to continue providing quality care.
HIPPA Compliance:
Our telehealth sessions are HIPPA compliant. In following HIPPA guidelines for providing remote healthcare, the Telehealth service we use is a non-public facing form of audio/video communication. Which is to say, the privacy of our Telehealth sessions is ensured. To contrast this, if we were to use Facebook or YouTube or Twitch, these are public-facing communication services where the healthcare meeting is accessible to the public. In being private meetings, which provide effective healthcare services, our sessions are HIPPA compliant.
Through Telehealth physical therapy meetings, Park Sports providers can interview, examine, and provide valuable treatment in the safety of your home. Our clinical specialists have the advanced knowledge, skills, and technology to empower patients in alternative settings. Telehealth Physical Therapy sessions provide simple and personal solutions to the current situation.
In doing so, we are providing healthcare for our clients, while ensuring their privacy and ensuring that both parties are complying with social distancing guidelines. This is something that is very helpful during our current pandemic and will continue to be after our pandemic when our clients are sick or for some other reason, can't come into the office but still need a PT session.
According to the American Physical Therapy Association, which has reviewed countless studies, Telehealth sessions are just as effective as in-person sessions.
For our current patients receiving services in Park Slope, Clinton Hill, and Williamsburg, your access to physical therapy continues without interruption, even when you cannot come to the office.
How it works:
You can schedule a Telehealth session as a regular appointment by calling our mainline 718-230-1180 or you can click here to schedule. We will take your insurance information and provide you with details about your coverage for Telehealth Physical Therapy. You will receive an invite to a HIPPA compliant video site at the scheduled time where you meet your provider.
Once you have a meeting scheduled, things are more-or-less the same as an in-person physical therapy session. Your therapist will evaluate you and provide you with a physical therapy regimen that our therapists can guide you through depending upon your needs. The only difference will be that the therapist will not be able to do any hands-on work. Any condition/diagnosis can be treated through telehealth physical therapy sessions.
Insurance coverage:
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, many insurance companies have expanded to cover remote/telehealth PT sessions. Medicaid and Medicare specifically have made such expansions.
Out-of-pocket costs will vary depending on the type of patient insurance.
MEDICARE
To accommodate for COVID-19, the rural and site telehealth limitations will no longer apply in Medicare.
Medicare pays the same amount for telehealth services as it would if the service were delivered in person. For services that have different rates in the office versus the facility (the site of service payment differential), Medicare uses the facility payment rate when services are furnished via telehealth.
In other words, Medicare covers you for Telehealth the same way it covers you for ordinary physical therapy.
PRIVATE PAYERS
Several health insurance providers have announced that they will make telehealth more widely available or offer telehealth services for free for a certain period of time. Some of the announcements have come from Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield is eliminating prior authorization for COVID-19 related services, covering full costs of diagnostic tests, increasing access to medication, and expanding access to telehealth and healthcare hotlines.
If your insurance company has not been mentioned here, contact us and we can work with you so you can see your options.