Skip to main content
Loading
Sign In
Families and Youth
Toggle
Advocacy
Ethics
Facts for Families
Family Resources
Getting Help
Resource Centers
Resource Libraries
Youth Resources
Support AACAP
Medical Students & Residents
Toggle
Child Psychiatry Residents (Fellows)
Medical Student Resources
Member Resources
Toggle
Advocacy
Assembly of Regional Organizations
Award Opportunities
Become a Member
Clinical Practice Center
CPT and Reimbursement
Early Career Psychiatrists
Education Center
Ethics
International
Job Source
Life Members
Maintenance of Certification
Research
Resources for Primary Care
Toggle
Advocacy and Policy
Become a Member
Clinical Practice Center
Ethics
Information for Patients and Their Families
Integrated Care For Kids
Integrating Mental Health Care into the Medical Home
Practice Parameters and Resource Centers
CME & Meetings
Toggle
2021 Online Hansen Annual Update Course
2021 Annual Meeting
Learning on Demand
Maintenance of Certification and Lifelong Learning Modules
Online CME
Pathways
My Profile
Store
Cart
Donate
Join AACAP
Toggle search
Toggle navigation
Quick Links
Telepsychiatry
Telepsychiatry Toolkit
Coding for Telemedicine Services
Telepsychiatry Clinical Update
Telepsychiatry Guidelines and Policies
Useful Telepsychiatry Websites
Telepsychiatry Glossary
AACAP Committee on Telepsychiatry
Clinical Practice Center
Legal and Reimbursement Issues
Shabana Khan, MD
Telepsychiatrists should consult federal and state laws, as well as the laws, regulations, and policies of their medical licensing board and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) prior to initiating telepsychiatry services with youth.
Many states require guardian consent, written and/or verbal, for telepsychiatry services in addition to the usual consent for care.
Telepsychiatrists must consider that reporting requirements may vary by jurisdiction and ensure that relevant personnel at the distant (provider location) and originating (patient location) sites are informed of reporting requirements for youth.
The Ryan Haight Online Consumer Pharmacy Protection Act of 2008 impacts the legitimate practice of child and adolescent telepsychiatry. The requirement for the initial in-person evaluation is a major barrier for telepsychiatry with youth and the exceptions to this requirement are narrow and do not apply to many telepsychiatry applications.
The Ryan Haight Act is also relevant to the increasing trend towards direct-to-consumer telepsychiatry as the home setting is not an approved site of service for prescribing controlled substances.
Teletelepsychiatrists should comply with the AACAP Code of Ethics.
In the absence of a comprehensive policy for delivering telemedicine services, individual states have proposed legislation to expand services in several ways, such reimbursing for school-based telepsychiatry services or repealing laws that mandate minimum distance requirements between distant and originating sites in order to receive reimbursement.
The majority of states have telehealth commercial insurance coverage laws that require private insurers to cover telemedicine services similar to in-person care, however only a subset of these states have payment parity laws which require insurers to pay telemedicine providers the same amount as they would if that same service were provided in-person.
Some states require coverage for telepsychiatry services for specific circumstances or disorders, such as the delivery of autism interventions.
References
Clinical update: Telepsychiatry with children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.2017;56(10):875-893.
Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. In: L P, ed. No110, HR 6353; 2008.
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Code of ethics.
Published September 2014. Accessed May 3, 2018.
Center for Connected Health Policy. Telehealth policy. Laws and reimbursement policies: Advanced search. Published 2018. http://www.cchpca.org/laws/list?field_area_of_law_tid[0]=99&field_status_tid[0]=127&items_per_page=10&page=1. Accessed 2 May, 2018.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##