NY Hep C Telemedicine Workgroup – Meeting Notes
Thursday, November 19, 2020 (10-11AM EST) via webinar:
In attendance at this meeting: See below notes
Next Meeting: Thursday, December 17 – 10:00AM
Workgroup Chair: Andrew Talal, MD, University at Buffalo, ahtalal@buffalo.edu
Workgroup goals: Short term: Identify, assess, document and disseminate current strategies and opportunities to provide hepatitis C treatment in substance use treatment facilities, via telemedicine. Long-term: Develop a NYS Telehealth network to provide a forum for ongoing learning and sharing of best practices to promote hepatitis B and C care and treatment through telehealth.
Meeting Notes
- Andrew Talal, MD, University at Buffalo, ahtalal@buffalo.edu and
- Nirah Johnson, NYC Health Department, njohnso2@health.nyc.gov
Policy Updates
Telemedicine Policy Updates
Katy Cook – kcook@ahihealth.org
- CMS has finalized their Calendar Year 2021 Physician Fee Schedule. The 2021 PFS finalizes the addition of certain select codes that are on the Medicare telehealth list as a result of the COVID-19 PHE on a permanent basis, and adds others provisionally through the end of the year in which the PHE ends. Please visit the CMS.gov Newsroom article linked here for detailed information on these updates.
- Providers can request telemedicine implementation technical assistance from the following organizations:
Telemedicine Implementation Presentation
Abigail Hunter, MPH, MSN, FNP-BC – abigail@vocal-ny.org
- See the full presentation attached.
Workgroup Project Updates
- Recommendations to Support Expansion of Hepatitis C Treatment in Opioid Treatment Programs in NYS – Letter was sent to OASAS. Medicaid and Governor with 54 signatories
- Study of providers implementing telemedicine during COVID-19. For information or to support this initiative, contact Pruthi Patel, MD pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org
- Implementation Guide for Hep C Treatment via Telemedicine at Substance Use Treatment Programs – published by NASTAD.
Training and Meeting
- Telehealth for Community-Based Organizations Webinar Series. CMS.
- [http://]Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule: Understanding 4 Key Topics – December 10, 2020 1:30pm-3:00pm ET
Resources
- Hep Free NYC Telehealth Resources webpage
- NYC REACH a telehealth technical assistance Resources
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- Telehealth Billing and coding tip sheet
- Telehealth Coding Payment Tracker to keep track of all changing requirements and reimbursements across insurance plans
- Telehealth Vendor Options for a list of the key functionalities of the various telemedicine products as reported by the vendors
- CMS’ guidance on telehealth visits when calculating their Meaningful Use performance and Medicaid patient volume
Attendance
- Abigail Hunter, Vocal-NY, abbynhunter@gmail.com
- Andrew Reynolds, Viral Hepatitis Community Partner, areynoldshcv@gmail.com
- Andrew Talal, Research Foundation of SUNY, ahtalal@buffalo.edu
- Angelica Ramirez, Mount Sinai Health System, angelica.ramirez@mountsinai.org
- April Bennett, AbbVie, april.bennett@abbvie.com
- Arpan Dharia, State University of New York (SUNY), adharia@buffalo.edu
- Chris Cruz, AbbVie, chriscruz@abbvie.com
- Colleen Flanigan, NYSDOH AIDS Institute, colleen.flanigan@health.ny.gov
- Dan Shappee, AbbVie, daniel.shappee@abbvie.com
- Darlene Meyer, State University of New York (SUNY), dkmeyer@buffalo.edu
- Debra Farron, Gilead Science, debra.farron@gilead.com
- Frank Winter, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, frank.winter@cms.hhs.gov
- Jeff Weiss, REACH, jeffrey.weiss@mountsinai.org
- Joy Cambe, Empire Liver Foundation, joycambe@empireliverfoundation.org
- Justine Waldman, Reach Medical, jwaldman@reachmed.org
- Kathleen Davis, University of Rochester Medical Center, kathleen_davis@urmc.rochester.edu
- Katy Cook, Adirondack Health Institute, kcook@ahihealth.org
- Marc Badura, Research Foundation of SUNY, mbadura@buffalo.edu
- Marie Bresnahan, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov
- Meg Chappell, Empire Liver Foundation, megchappell@empireliverfoundation.org
- Nadine Kela-Murphy, NYC NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, nkelamurphy@health.nyc.gov
- Nirah Johnson, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, njohnso2@health.nyc.gov
- Pantelis Antoniou, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC, paa9093@nyp.org
- Pruthvi Patel, Empire Liver Foundation, pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org
- Rachel Picone, Berkshire Health Systems, rpicone@bhs1.org
- Sandeep Krishnan, MedTech International Group, sandeep.krishnan@medtecintl.com