DEEOIC to Allow Telemedicine for Routine Appointments

The Department of Labor’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation will now allow physicians to use telemedicine for routine visits. This is a temporary policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of an appointment will not need pre-authorization.

Telemedicine includes phone, video conferencing or similar technologies) which the physician believes will provide the most appropriate medical benefit to the claimant.

The physicians may determine, in the exercise of their professional judgment, that to best meet the medical needs of the claimant, the telemedicine appointment may need a medical professional on-site with the claimant in their home. In these circumstances, the physician may have a Registered Nurse (RN), Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner (APNP), or Physician Assistant (PA) present with the claimant during the physician’s telemedicine appointment.

Physicians may bill utilizing appropriate telemedicine billing codes, listing the claimant’s address as the location of delivery of the medical care.

If other appropriate medical professionals participated in the telemedicine appointment, then they may bill using non-telemedicine billing codes appropriate to their visit in the home as long as they were not already in the home for another authorized, billable service.

Along with the bill for services, the physician must provide the following information:

• Notes from the appointment that articulate the method of telemedicine that the physician employed;
• Any vitals or medical evidence collected; and
• An outline of the medical need and the benefit derived from the appointment, as it relates to the claimant’s accepted condition(s).

DEEOIC is fully aware that some treating physicians may be constrained in their ability to practice telemedicine by the requirements of either state law or their licensing authorities. DEEOIC recognizes that such requirements must be observed by the physicians to which they apply. This includes the requirement that the physician must be physically located in the same state as the claimant’s residence while providing telemedicine (or must be licensed to practice medicine in the state where the claimant resides).