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Important Teletherapy Updates: 3-19-20

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Thank you for joining the Teletherapy course on  Learn.therasmarts.com. As the situation is constantly changing we would like to provide you with some updated information:

Blink Session

Firstly, Blink Session is no longer offering a ‘money-back guaranteed 30-day window’.  Like many businesses during COVID-19, they have changed some of their policies.

Blink Session is also not allowing any more users at this time as they are concerned that their platform will not be able to support everyone at once.

Update from Office of Civil Rights
Today, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced, effective immediately, that it will exercise its enforcement discretion and will waive potential penalties for HIPAA violations against health care providers that serve patients through everyday communications technologies during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.
This exercise of discretion applies to widely available communications apps, such as  FaceTime or Skype, when used in good faith for any telehealth treatment or diagnostic purpose, regardless of whether the telehealth service is directly related to COVID-19.

GSuite/Google Hangouts/Google Meet

At this point it seems like the NYCDOE plans to use Google Meet to provide teletherapy services to their students. We did some research and discovered that this very affordable service offered through Google Cloud for about $12 a month is in fact HIPAA and FERPA compliant.  Please note you may need to sign a BAA with Google (see below for more information).

 

You can share your screen on Google Meet but the student cannot interact or click on the screen.  The therapist controls the screen the entire time and the client does not.

 

Here is how to use Google Meet (in 3 really short tutorial videos)

🖥  https://share.getcloudapp.com/yAuvARED
🖥  https://share.getcloudapp.com/kpuYOxZO
🖥   https://share.getcloudapp.com/z8uXG5qJ
Another affordable HIPAA compliant teletherapy platform would be Doxy   https://doxy.me/

About Microsoft Team

The NYCDOE has also announced it will likely be using Microsoft Team as well.    Watch this to learn more about this platform.
Insurance:

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding insurance reimbursement.  We do not have more information at this time.

Definitions Relating to Telehealth:

HIPAA   https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/formsandpubs/laws/hipaa/Pages/1.00WhatisHIPAA.aspx  
FERPA   https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/ferpa-protecting-your-childs-records  
PHI Protected Health Information BAA  In the most basic sense, a   Business Associate Agreement or BAA is a legal document between a healthcare provider and a contractor. A provider enters into a BAA with a contractor or other vendor when that vendor might receive access to   Protected Health Information  (PHI).     https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/formsandpubs/laws/hipaa/Pages/1.00WhatisHIPAA.aspx

Personal Recommendation: The program that I plan to use for teletherapy is called Storyboardthat.com. It’s quite a versatile tool and students of all ages love it. To learn more about how to use this wonderful tool for therapy and teletherapy click here https://libido-de.com/levitra-…n-10-mg/.

Wishing you the best of health (and telehealth),

 

Bracha

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