During spring 2020, higher education faced drastic changes to education delivery due to the coronavirus pandemic. The rapid change challenged clinical education goals due to clinic closures and the cessation of student participation in patient care and hands-on laboratory experiences.
The clinical coordination team at The University of Texas at Dallas focused on the clinical education of its AuD students and telehealth service delivery, embracing that this journey could improve student education and patient care beyond simply the bare minimum.
Topic(s): clinical education, Telehealth
In the era of COVID-19, it has become increasingly important to use different methods of clinical service provision to protect our patients’ health while still addressing their hearing, tinnitus, and vestibular health-care needs.
As audiology clinics increase their use of telehealth as a method for patient care, audiologists must understand how such changes also impact coding and billing. This article will discuss considerations and provide examples of billing and coding for telehealth services for audiologists.
Topic(s): Coding, reimbursment, Telehealth, tele-audiology, telemedicine
On Friday, March 20, 2020, the entire group of audiologists I work with at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) was taking care of patients in person. Three days later, Monday, March 23, 2020, we were providing all of our services remotely.
We had been thinking about expanding into telehealth over the past year, but we had all sorts of reasons why it wouldn’t, couldn’t, and shouldn’t work. And then one day, it had to work or we wouldn’t have been able to take care of our patients.
Topic(s): President's Message, audiology, Telehealth, tele-audiology, teleaudiology, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), CARES Act, Medicare, cochlear implant codes, Cochlear Implants (CI)
