With so many patient episodes of care on hold due to social distancing concerns, rehab therapists are now looking to telehealth as an alternative to office visits, yet many have little, if any, experience implementing telehealth. To help rehab therapists in hospitals and private practices to get started, Net Health recently offered a free webinar with advice from physical therapist David Grigsby, MPT, cert MDT, who has been successfully leveraging telehealth for almost a decade while advocating for its use at industry gatherings and in media interviews. View the webinar.

Grigsby, co-owner of Tennessee-based Midsouth Orthopaedic Rehab, highlighted key information about telehealth as well as actions and suggested steps to take for setting up a telehealth service, such as:

• An explanation of telehealth types
• An overview of legality, laws, regulations and parity law
• Advice for ensuring compliance with state laws and insurance requirements
• How to select codes for billing
• Medicare reimbursement for telehealth
• Standards of practice for PT Compact membership
• Best practices for setting up a teleconferencing platform, scheduling telehealth visits, and collecting payments
• Recommendations for assessment and treatment during telehealth visits
• Suggestions for marketing and promoting telehealth services locally

A long-time proponent of telehealth as a way to provide more access and convenience for patients who live in rural areas or who are challenged with attending onsite visits consistently, Grigsby stressed the value that telehealth can bring rehab therapists into the future, long after the COVID-19 pandemic has been resolved.

Speaking directly to practitioners and clinic leaders, he said: "As the PT world changes, when it comes to telehealth, people are going to be seeking out convenient alternatives with good outcomes, and we want you to be on the forefront of that so that it not only covers you now in this crisis situation, but continues to help you going forward, so you can build your practices and meet the needs of your patients wherever they are."

As part of the webinar, Net Health introduced a new telehealth platform inside their ReDoc® powered by xfit® EHR, offered via the Net Health Therapy for Hospital Outpatient Clinics and Net Health Therapy for Private Practice solutions. The new offering is a patient portal with secure messaging, direct access to health information and appointments and videconferencing for telehealth embedded within the application.

"Knowing that many rehab therapists are not prepared to execute on telehealth, we wanted to make sure we are arming our clients and other healthcare organizations with tools to make themselves more accessible to have a larger outreach," noted Net Health's Doug Cundiff, MPT, MPH, vice president of ReDoc 360 Professional Services, who hosted the webinar. "At the end of the day, our purpose is to unite caregivers with their calling, and this fuels our drive to telehealth."

Net Health is one of the nation's leading providers of cloud-based software for specialty medical providers, driving the work of specialized providers in 14,000 outpatient therapy clinics as well as thousands of rehab specialists in hospitals, senior living facilities and private practices.

Get on-demand access to David Grigsby's webinar online. View the webinar.

About Net Health

Net Health provides cloud-based software for specialty medical providers across the continuum of healthcare – from hospital to home. Net Health's interoperable EMRs deliver end-to-end solutions that ensure compliance, improve outcomes, empower providers and inspire care. The company serves over 14,000 facilities, including 98 percent of the largest hospital chains, two-thirds of skilled nursing facilities and many leading hospice organizations and private practices. Net Health is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, Level Equity and Silversmith Capital Partners. www.nethealth.com