Wiki telehealth vs telephone

[luvbuix]

i have a question regarding telehealth vs telephone. i know the difference between the 2 but my question is this: is there a certain amount of time that the telehealth visit should be attempted or conducted before switching to telephone only if the connection goes down? one of my docs was on a telehealth visit & then the connection went bad & it was converted to telephone only. i tried searching for some guidelines on this but had no luck- that's why i'm on here. any tips or links to guidelines would be appreciated. i don't need references explaining what these codes are for- i know that part- i want to know if there's a guideline to help me with the above scenario?

 

[csperoni]

On the CMS FAQ for telehealth, section P, question 26:
Question: If the video connection is disconnected during an audio-video Medicare telehealth visit due to technological issues, can the visit still be billed as Medicare telehealth?
Answer: Practitioners should report the code that best describes the service. If the service was furnished primarily through an audio-only connection, practitioners should consider whether the telephone evaluation and management or assessment and management codes best describe the service, or whether the service is best described by one of the behavioral health and education codes for which we have waived the video requirement during the PHE for the COVID-19 pandemic. If the service was furnished primarily using audio-video technology, then the practitioner should bill the appropriate code from the
Medicare telehealth list that describes the service. Note that CPT codes 99441–99443, which describe audio-only telephone E/M phone visits with practitioners who can independently bill for E/M services, have been added to the Medicare telehealth list for the purposes of the PHE for the COVID-19 pandemic, and payment rates for these codes are set to be the same as the analogous in-person E/M visits.

If you note, they use the word "primarily" twice. So, if >50% of the visit was audio/video, I would code as E/M. If >50% was audio only, I would code telephone. If the times of each are not clear and provider does not recall, then I would err on the side of telephone.