Specialist insurer Beazley has extended its risk management offering for the telehealth sector with new tools designed to help navigate the complex digital health regulatory landscape.
In partnership with law firm BakerHostetler, Beazley has created a multi-layered interactive digital map that provides detailed information on the state-by-state laws governing the provision of telehealth services across the United States.
Using up-to-date research and data points, the map clearly highlights regional variances in legislation and guidelines to help brokers and telehealth professionals to navigate the complexities of providing cross-state remote healthcare services.
The digital map, available here, includes data points on all 50 states including the following:
- Who can be a telehealth provider
- Practice standards
- Licensure requirements
- Accepted modalities (audio, video, mobile)
- Excluded services
- Additional reimbursement potential
- Potential COVID-19 waivers
- Existence of active patient compensation funds
The map will be refreshed to reflect changes to the regulatory landscape, which has evolved more rapidly since the start of the pandemic as state regulators responded to the surge in demand and need for remote healthcare.
The map is accessible via Beazley’s website and Virtual Care customer portal, in addition to existing risk management advice and information tailored to digital health clients and brokers.
Risk management services form an essential part of Beazley’s offering to the digital health and wellness space, aimed at helping to mitigate and manage the complex web of commercial risks facing the sector.
Easier, compliant credentialing
Also now available via the Virtual Care customer portal exclusively for clients and brokers, are credentialing and re-credentialing checklists designed to help telehealth professionals remain compliant and in the strongest position to mitigate and defend against claims.
These documents enable telehealth providers to ensure all processing of newly employed or prospective employees, physicians and other level practitioners meets compliance requirements thus reducing the risk of professional liability or malpractice claims.
The credentialing documents have also been designed in response to a recent poll of hundreds of digital health and wellness leaders commissioned by Beazley. According to Beazley’s Spotlight on: digital health and wellness report, the ability to recruit and check the credentials of practitioners sits alongside economic uncertainty as the business risk that industry leaders in the US are most concerned about.
Jennifer Schoenthal, Beazley Virtual Care Global Product Leader, said: “Regulations around telehealth continue to shift as the sector matures and patient demand changes. The pandemic has created more layers of complexity as state and federal law have responded to meet demand for telehealth services. These include the temporary relaxation of HIPAA rules to facilitate remote consultations, relaxation on licensing laws to allow providers to operate in and across multiple states, and increased reimbursement potential.
“Telehealth leaders are aware that a shifting regulatory landscape has the potential to create significant risk. As we move beyond the current crisis, credentialing and regulatory requirements may drive significant exposures as the industry grows. In response to this we’ve enhanced our risk management offering for telehealth clients to provide additional tools that help navigate state variances in regulation and the need for quick and accurate credentialing of new staff.
“The telehealth sector is experiencing strong growth; we want to ensure we provide the insurance and risk management these businesses need to realize their potential.”
Lynn Sessions, partner at BakerHostetler, said: “Our interactive map is intended to help the healthcare, insurance and legal communities to understand how one state differs from another in defining and regulating telemedicine, a form of healthcare that has experienced extremely rapid growth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regulatory map is now available on the Beazley website at https://www.beazley.com/beazley_academy/interactive_map.html
This map is not interactive but gives you an idea of what it looks like if you click the link https://www.beazley.com/beazley_academy/interactive_map.html
