Q1 2026 Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates are now available!

The quarterly updates for the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available!  These updates reflect key regulatory changes and ongoing efforts to keep providers up to date on virtual care guidelines.

On February 3, 2026, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, was passed, extending Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 31, 2027. This ensures continued access to virtual care for Medicare beneficiaries and reinforces the role of telehealth in modern healthcare delivery, particularly for rural and underserved communities.

View South Central Billing & Reimbursement Updates

The post Billing & Reimbursement Updates Now Available! Q1 2026 appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Q4 2025 Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates are now available!

The quarterly updates to the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available!

The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2026 (H.R. 5371) extended current telehealth flexibilities, retroactive to October 1, and allows the flexibilities outlined below to remain in effect through January 30, 2026. In addition, CMS released the Calendar Year 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (CMS-1832-F), which includes several important telehealth policy changes summarized below.

View South Central Billing & Reimbursement Updates

The post Billing & Reimbursement Updates Now Available for December 2025 appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Q4 2025 Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates are now available!

The quarterly updates for the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available! Payors were fairly quiet this past quarter, but with 2026 on the horizon, we can expect some shifts when CMS releases finalized 2026 telehealth guidance.

CMS has released the Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule (CMS-1832-P), which includes several important telehealth changes detailed below. Remember, this is still a proposed rule, the final version will be published in November, and some details may change.

Medicare Telehealth Coverage & Billing: Post-Expiration

On October 1, 2025, the federal government shut down after Congress failed to pass a FY 2026 spending bill. With that, the Medicare telehealth flexibilities, which had been extended throughout the pandemic, have officially expired. Read more about what this means for healthcare providers below.

View South Central Billing & Reimbursement Updates

The post Billing & Reimbursement Updates Now Available! Q4 2025 appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Q3 2025 Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates are now available!

View the third quarterly update for 2025 has just been published. Take a look at all the changes for the South Central Region (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) as well as our Archive!

Following the wave of 2025 policy changes, most payors have remained relatively quiet this quarter, with few new updates as their telehealth and virtual care policies appear to have stabilized a bit more.

Read more through the link below.

View South Central Billing & Reimbursement Updates

The post Billing & Reimbursement Updates Now Available! Q3 2025 appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

March 2025 Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates are now available!

View the second quarterly update for 2025 has just been published. Take a look at all the changes for the South Central Region (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) as well as our Archive!

Along with the exciting news that current Medicare telehealth flexibilities were extended through September 30th, 2025 via recently passed legislation, several changes within the Commercial and Medicaid space also occurred this past quarter, as payors continue to evaluate the newly released 2025 telehealth E/M codes.

View South Central Billing & Reimbursement Updates

The post March 2025 Billing & Reimbursement Updates Now Available! appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

We’ll cover topics including

• Healthcare coverage rates by geography
• Areas with identified disability populations
• The distribution of healthcare businesses
• introduction to the Census Business Builder tool.

The post Unlock Community Insights: Healthcare, Disability, and Business Data Tools from the Census Bureau – Mississippi appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Mississippi has the highest rate of  STI’s (Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis) in the United States. Mississippi has seen a remarkable increase in syphilis in recent years, including a  > 1000% increase in congenital syphilis since 2016.  Community physicians and practitioners lack key information and are unaware of many resources available to help diagnose and treat STD’s. This project will train community providers, throughout MS in the diagnosis, prevention, and management of STDs.

Topics Covered

• Congenital syphilis
• Epidemiology of STIs
• Identifying and managing syphilis in adults
• Gonorrhea and chlamydia
• HIV Prevention – PrEP
• STD prevention DoxyPEP
• The other STD’s – trichomonas, M genitalium, BV

Target Audience

• Physicians
• Physician Assistants
• Nurse Practitioners
• Social Workers

Certification & Credits

Attending community clinicians will get free CE in a virtual learning network through the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

HRSA Acknowledgment: This program is made possible by grant number U6631459, Telehealth Centers of Excellence from the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, DHHS

Contact Information

For more information, please get in touch with us at tdobbs@umc.ed or divory@umc.edu

The post Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the Community – ECHO Series appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

One in four primary care visits includes some type of skin complaint.* In Mississippi, there are 47,440 patients per one dermatologist.** At UMMC alone, new patients may wait up to six weeks to see a dermatologist.

The UMMC Project ECHO for Dermatology empowers primary care providers to treat skin conditions in their communities through case based learning and didactics. Providers can also expand the treatment of skin condition in their practices by submitting cases for treatment feedback.

ECHO topics include:

• Psoriasis
• Acne and rosacea
• Skin cancer prevention
• Warts
• Urticaria
• Skin cancers

How ECHO works

Join Zoom from PC, Mac, iOS or Android:

https://echo.zoom.us/j/7834560472

Upcoming session topics and dates:

13^th Nov               Biopsy Breakdown (Overview of Shave/Punch Biopsy Techniques)

11^th Dec                Pediatric Dermatoses

Free CME credit available

The Division of Continuing Health Education at University of Mississippi Medical Center is accredited by AGME. AMA category 1 CME credits will be offered at no cost to you.

The post UMMC – Project ECHO Dermatology appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Rural hospitals today face significant cash flow and revenue cycle challenges, primarily due to a combination of low patient volumes, high rates of uninsured or underinsured patients, and reliance on government payers along with shrinking yields and margin on commercial payor contracts. These factors lead to tighter margins, making it difficult for rural hospitals to maintain financial stability. Additionally, many rural hospitals struggle with outdated billing systems, limited staff resources, and complexities in navigating regulatory requirements, all of which can result in delays in billing and payment collections. The cumulative effect of these challenges threatens the financial viability of rural hospitals, impacting their ability to provide essential healthcare services to their communities.

Webinar Objectives

• Overview of key components of hospital revenue cycle process
• Review of top trends and challenges impacting rural hospital’s cash flow
• Actionable strategies for rural hospitals to improve their cash flow
• Showcase of PayrHealth’s solution and successes
• How to create a strategy for your payor contract negotiations
• How to use contract negotiations to address your hospital’s biggest challenges with payors.
• How to get past “NO” in Payor negotiations.

Registration

• Member
• Non-Member – $25.00

The post Webinar: Payor Contracting Strategy and Revenue Cycle Best Practices appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

The Mississippi Rural Health Annual Conference is the state’s largest rural health conference. We are pleased to announce this year’s conference will be Returning to the Vicksburg Convention Center. 

Participants may choose to attend in-person or online.

Not only will we have the best education that you can find, but we will also have multiple elected officials in attendance, awards presented for hospital quality and leadership, a recognition banquet for our rural health fellows, and the Mississippi Rural Physician Scholars’ poster contest. You’ll find great food, networking, education, leadership, and so much more.

Included Sessions

• Driving Increased Revenue Through Billable Care Management Programs
• Reducing Challenges and Barriers for Patients with Pre-diabetes and Diabetes
• Vaping and Our Youth: Understanding and Addressing the Teenage Epidemic
• Navigating the Financial Frontier: Transforming Rural Healthcare, One Community at a Time
• Addressing Hospital Financial Headwinds Through Clinical Revenue Cycle Redesign
• Struggles and Opportunities of Mississippi’s Critical Access Hospitals
•  Addressing Rural Food Insecurity Through Community Lead Program Design: Lessons from the MS Delta 

The post 29th Annual Mississippi Rural Health Conference appeared first on LearnTelehealth.