In a single week, HealthPartners completed 2,145 video visits across all of its care areas, with 200 of them specific to mental health care. After initially prioritizing emergency rooms and hospitals, it has now expanded video services to include outpatient visits with psychiatry clinicians, adult and child therapy, and group therapy. HealthPartners has already rolled out video consultations using the Smart Phone app Google Duo. Given patient backlogs, the more relaxed rules - which were made public earlier this month - allow health care providers to provide similar tele-health services “to assess or treat any other medical condition, even if not related to COVID-19, such as a sprained ankle, dental consultation or psychological evaluation, or other conditions.” OTHER VIDEO-BASED SOLUTIONS BEING LOOKED AT How about mental health check-ins, chipped teeth and other concerns not related to the pandemic? On the flip side, Facebook Live, Twitch, TikTok and similar video communication applications are “public facing,” or intended to be broadcast to a mass audience, “and should not be used in the provision of telehealth by covered health care providers,” according to a recent HHS notice.Īs a result, effective immediately, the office “will exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties for noncompliance with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA rules.” The HHS Office for Civil Rights - which is in charge of enforcing HIPAA regulations - acknowledges that “some of these technologies, and the manner in which they are used by HIPAA-covered health care providers, may not fully comply with the requirements of the HIPAA rules,” but time is of the essence. HHS recommends enabling all possible privacy and encryption settings. Under the new rules, Apple FaceTime, Facebook Messenger video chat, Google Hangouts video, Zoom and Skype are now OK, with the expectation providers notify patients that these third-party applications potentially introduce privacy risks. It’s always going to be a trade-off, but I’d rather people have access to their doctor.” NOT ALL VIDEO CHAT ALLOWED “And some of these platforms have improved security over time. “Is the information going to be used in a way you don’t expect? Is a hacker going to get it?” McGeveran added. William McGeveran, a law professor and associate dean at the University of Minnesota Law School who wrote a textbook on privacy law, likens the growing number of person-to-person platforms to the old-fashioned telephone call. “It’s the new reality,” said Rick Fuentes, a spokesman for the Minnesota Nurses Association. But with patient loads growing and older adults and other vulnerable groups at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, HHS is now asking medical providers to use their best discretion as they set up remote consultations. Those data privacy restrictions, known as “HIPAA” rules in medical circles, stem from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as well as subsequent cyber-security legislation. It’s easier to hack into or trip across a video conversation that’s based within an app that was specifically created to reach a social audience. Until now, HHS has frowned upon using popular chat applications to conduct “tele-health” for care decisions, in large part because of privacy concerns. Department of Health and Human Services has loosened restrictions during the COVID-19 public health crisis to allow sensitive medical decisions to be made over a growing number of online video chat programs, as opposed to the more secure Epic medical software. A medical consultation, or even a critical care review can be made over online applications such as FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom or Skype.
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