Join us for Telehealth Tuesdays: Strategies for Effective Care! This four-part webinar series will cover central telehealth topics like technology, billing & reimbursement, remote patient monitoring, and innovative programs. Each session in this series is designed to equip healthcare professionals with actionable strategies for delivering high-quality telehealth care. This series is a collaborative effort by the South Central Telehealth Resource Center and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Focused on advancing digital health innovation, the Digital Health Summit 2027 is scheduled for February 23-24, 2027 in Nashville, Tennessee the summit and will bring together providers, physicians, healthcare IT professionals, and executives to collaborate and explore cutting-edge solutions in digital health. Hosted by leading telehealth organizations—Pulse Telehealth Resource Center, Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center, South Central Telehealth Resource Center, and TexLa Telehealth Resource Center—this event aims to foster networking, knowledge-sharing, and strategic discussions.

In this episode, Dr. Parker Davidson, MD, Medical Director of the West Little Rock Arkansas Children’s Pediatric Clinic, joins the show to share his insights and experiences with pediatric telehealth in Arkansas. Listeners can expect to hear about the challenges, benefits, and real-world impact of telehealth services in pediatric care, as well as Dr. Davidson’s perspective on the future of healthcare delivery for children in the region.

The quarterly updates for the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available! This quarter’s update focuses on an important Medicare billing change for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing distant-site telehealth services.

Did you know that the USAC RHC Program provides a 65% reimbursement on eligible broadband connectivity expenses for eligible health care providers (HCPs)? Join us on September 29th at 12:00PM CST and learn more about the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) Rural Health Care (RHC) Funding Potential. Subject Matter Experts Michael Wallace, MBA, Assistant Director and Martin Maize, Senior Project Manager of UAMS e-Link, will lead us in an in-depth discussion about the FCC Universal Service Fund and the Rural Healthcare (RHC) Program.

Eligible Telehealth Services List (Page 61)

Each year, CMS typically adds one or more services to the current eligible telehealth services list, either of their own accord or as a result of a suggestion from the public that CMS has found meets the criteria to be added to the list. As a reminder, under Medicare, practitioners will only be reimbursed for specific services that are provided via telehealth.  This year, CMS notes that it did not receive any suggestions from the public for services to be placed on the list, however, CMS has made several of their own recommendations for new service codes, including:

Additionally, as a result of questions received from the public, CMS is also proposing to clarify the elements of two codes by revising their formal descriptors. The proposed changes of the descriptors for these two codes include:

CMS notes that they are also seeking comments on whether to provide payment for physician-patient clinical trial discussions and whether it should be available via telehealth. The potential code would be defined as a minimum of 20 minutes of physician or qualified health professional’s time spent on clinical trial counseling. (Page 215)

Extension of the Telehealth Waivers & New Modifiers (Page 62)

In the CY 2027 PFS CMS proposes the implementation of several directives that were previously included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (CAA 2026). The CAA 2026 extended the telehealth waivers expiration date to December 31, 2027, and also delayed the required prior in-person visit for mental health services (if the visit does not qualify for certain exceptions) for both eligible practitioners, as well as for federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) when they are using technology to provide these services. CMS has proposed changing regulations to reflect these new dates to show that permanent policies will go back into effect on January 1, 2028.

Additionally, the CAA 2026 called for CMS to create new modifiers to capture when a practitioner provides services via telehealth through a third-party platform that the practitioner has either a contract or payment arrangement in place with.  The proposed two modifiers are BB and BC.

Direct Supervision Via Telehealth (Page 65)

In the final CY 2026 PFS, CMS permanently allowed teaching physicians to have a virtual presence in all teaching settings, however when in clinical instances, supervision provided via live video can only be conducted via a three-way telehealth visit, with each party in a separate location. Due to public comments received that note it should be taken into consideration the fact that there may be occasions where the teaching physician and resident are in the same physical location (thereby not meeting the requirement that each party be in a different location), CMS is now proposing a modification that would allow the teaching physician to bill for services involving the resident when either the resident or the teaching physician is in the same physical location as the patient. CMS currently regards “physical location” as meaning in the same room as the beneficiary, however CMS is still seeking comments on this aspect. It is important to highlight that this situation would only apply to services that are on the eligible Telehealth services list for Medicare. Appropriate documentation would be required.

Remote Physiologic Monitoring & Remote Therapy Monitoring (Page 149)

Remote Physiologic Monitoring (RPM) and Remote Therapy Monitoring (RTM) are the terms CMS uses for “two code families that describe certain remote monitoring services”.  Many generally refer to these as remote patient monitoring services. Over the years, CMS has both added to and refined how and when RPM and RTM services may be used to ensure reimbursement. For 2027, CMS is again proposing additional refinements to these services. Specifically, CMS is proposing that:

• RTM services are to be furnished only for established patients (this requirement already existed for RPM).

• Practitioners must furnish a separately reportable initiating visit in association with the onset of RPM or RTM services. The RPM and RTM services must be initiated by the billing practitioner during a face-to-face (may be in-person or via telehealth) visit. If the visit is not face-to-face or not separately payable by Medicare, it would not satisfy this requirement. If RPM/RTM is not discussed with the patient during the initiating visit, it would not count towards this requirement. The initiating visit can be billed separately.

• CMS is proposing to only allow payment RPM/RTM services when it is provided by clinical staff employed by the practice. The clinical staff must be a direct employee of the practitioner or practitioner’s practice. Clinical staff and beneficiary need not be physically on-site. This would mean that employees of a third-party contractor would not qualify for reimbursement.

• For codes 99473, 99445, 99454, 989-98978, 98984-98986, CMS is proposing crosswalks to other codes as certain costs may not be captured.

• For codes 99470, 99457-99458, 98977-98981, CMS is proposing to eliminate practice expense (PE) inputs as they believe certain costs have already been captured in the work relative value unites (RVUs).

CMS is also soliciting a litany of comments/feedback on a variety of suggestions around RPM and RTM beyond just the aforementioned proposals. These comment solicitations include:

• The administrative burden of the current coding structure for the remote monitoring family code.

• The bundling of CPT codes 99453, 99445, 99454, 99091, 99470, 99457, 99458, 98975, 98984, 98976, 98985, 98977, 98986, 98978, 98979, 98980, and 98981. Instead of these individual codes, there could be creation of new codes for initial set up and monthly monitoring and set up.

• The creation of four new HCPCS codes, their valuation and whether these codes should be implemented for FQHCs and RHCs:

Other Items

• The proposed Originating Site Fee for CY 2027 is $32.65 (Page 67)

• CMS proposes increasing the value of several codes for the Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) and the Advanced Primary Care Model (APCM) Behavioral Health Integration (BHI). Specifically, codes 99492-99494, G2214, G0568, G0569, G2214, G2086 – G2088. (Page 163)

Parker Davidson, MD, joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Assistant Professor in the General Pediatrics Clinic. Dr. Davidson, a Little Rock native, completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arkansas prior to returning to Little Rock where he attended Medical School at UAMS. Having spent time at Arkansas Children’s Hospital both as a child and again in college as an undergraduate researcher, Dr. Davidson knew he wanted to return to ACH to aid in caring for the children of Arkansas. After Medical School, he completed his Internship and Pediatric Residency at ACH and UAMS and made joined the faculty as a General Pediatrician at ACH.