New Mexico Pediatric Society
Telehealth Resources for Providers
In September 2021 the NMPS was awarded a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to support improvements in pediatric telehealth care. This webpage of resources was created in response to members’ expressed needs.
The needs assessment survey results
are available here.
This webpage was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $6,000,000 with no percentage financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the New Mexico Pediatric Society (NMPS) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
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Adolescents and Telehealth
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Keys to Successful Telehealth Visits with Adolescents
AAP Adolescent Telehealth Care ECHO - lecture on strategies to ensure successful telehealth visits with adolescents and their families.
Research
Adolescent and Parent Perceptions of Telehealth Visits: A Mixed-Methods Study
A cross-sectional convergent parallel mixed-methods study. English-speaking parents and 13- to 17-year-old adolescents who completed a video visit at eight academic-affiliated pediatric primary care practices in the Southeastern U.S. were recruited between September 2020 and January 2021. Telehealth presents unique benefits and challenges for adolescents and their parents. This study aimed to explore adolescent and parent perceptions of privacy, confidentiality, and therapeutic alliance during telehealth video visits.
Associations and Organizations
General Resources
American Telemedicine Association (ATA)
Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) Their mission is to advance state and national telehealth policies that promote better systems of care and improved health outcomes, as well as provide more equitable access to quality, affordable health care and services.
Center for Telehealth & e-Health Law
Southwest Telehealth Resource Center
National Library of Medicine National Telemedicine Initiative
Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (Health Resources and Services Administration, DHHS)
Billing and Payment
General Resources
AAP Telemedicine Coding Fact Sheet
Billing for Telehealth Encounters: An Introductory Guide on Fee-for-Service
Prepared by the Center for Connected Health Policy and The National Telehealth Policy Resource Center, this document provides guidance on billing for telehealth and virtual health care, and dives into fee-for-service Medicare as well as a Medicaid program. Audience: Facility directors and providers.
Coding Scenario: Coding for Telehealth Visits
Guide for how to bill for a variety of telehealth visits from the American Academy of Family Physicians. Audience: Facility directors and providers.
Coverage and Payment for Telemedicine
The American Medical Association offers an overview of health plan coverage and payment for telemedicine services. Audience: Facility directors and providers.
Policy Telehealth Coding and Payment Quick Guide
The American Medical Association’s advocacy team has been summarizing the latest updates in federal policy. Here are some additional key policy and payment considerations to keep in mind. Audience: Executive leadership and facility directors.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
UMTRC Webinar: Ohio Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Webinar for Maternal Health
May 2020, 55:22
Ohio State University and the Ohio Department of Health provide a video on how maternal health providers in Ohio can integrate telehealth into their clinical practices. Providing a deep dive into telehealth reimbursement for maternal health with an emphasis on Ohio Medicaid.
Overview of Telehealth Billing and Reimbursement Policies
August 2020, 1:03:35
Part of a 10-week series that was part of the National COVID Response offering peer-to-peer learning. Provided by the Center for Connected Health Policy via Project ECHO. Audience: Executive leadership and facility directors.
Top Seven Tips for Telehealth Billing
April 2020, 18:34
A review of best practices for billing for telehealth services to ensure reimbursement during COVID-19, presented by Kathy Wibberly, PhD, the director of the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center located at the University of Virginia.
Consent and Confidentiality
Templates
Informed Consent for Pediatric Telehealth
Example of an informed consent for as published by the National Jewish Health for Kids.
Informed Consent for Pediatric Telemedicine Services
Example of and informed consent form as published by Pediatric Associates.
General Resources
Teens and Telehealth: Consent & Confidentiality
A resource from Children’s National on recommendations for provision of telehealth care to adolescents: What new considerations exist for consent and confidentiality? How does clinical management change for urgent, typically confidential concerns when social distancing is a necessary barrier to in-person care? Published by Health and Human Services, this article provides practical guidance on how to obtain informed consent for services provided in a virtual setting.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Maintaining Confidentiality when Caring for Adolescents in Telehealth Setting
AAP Adolescent Telehealth Care ECHO Led by Maria Trent, MD, MPH, FAAP, FAHSM
Culturally Safe Care
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
September 2020, 1:04:50. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presenters discuss the intersection of telehealth and health equity and implications for health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters identify long-standing systemic health and social inequities that contribute to COVID-19 health disparities, while highlighting opportunities and limitations of telehealth implementation as an actionable solution.
Equitable Access
General Resources
The Telehealth ROCKS program provides overall outreach engagement and telehealth services to address developmental and behavioral disorders among children in rural South Central and Southeast Kansas, with expansion statewide.
Audio-Only Visits: Critical to Bridging the Digital Divide
California’s Telehealth Resource Center offers this discussion of the role and potential of audio-only services.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Advancing Health Equity through Telehealth Interventions during COVID-19 and Beyond
Facilitated by Families USA this webinar addresses equity in telehealth access. Specifically looking at patient-centered research, policy recommendations, and crossing the digital health divide.
Pediatrics Research Roundup, Racial Disparities in Telehealth - Episode 47
In this episode, Alex Kemper, MD, MPH, MS, FAAP, deputy editor of Pediatrics, is back for another edition of “First Up.” He joins hosts David Hill, MD, FAAP, and Joanna Parga-Belinkie, MD, FAAP, with a bird’s-eye view of what’s in the March issue of the journal. Maria Trent, MD, MPH, FAAP, FSAHM, lead author of the 2019 AAP policy statement on The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health, talks about racial disparities in telehealth. And Rebekah Fenton, MD, FAAP, adolescent medicine fellow at Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, joins the show with a "Giving Voice" segment about police in schools.
Homelessness, the Juvenile Justice System, and the Education System
Best Practice Guideline
Developing a School-Based Telehealth Strategy
Identify what will make a school-based program successful both in the short and long term. Develop a strategic plan to start up, maintain, and grow your school-based telehealth program.
General Resources
Not pediatric specific: This cross-sectional study was deemed exempt from review by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill institutional review board because the evaluation protocol met the definition of a limited data set under 45 CFR§164.514 (e).
National Healthcare for the Homeless Council
General resources on telehealth services for those experiencing homelessness.
A Telehealth Initiative to Overcome Health Care Barriers for People Experiencing Homelessness
People experiencing homelessness (PEH) encounter barriers to health care, increasing their vulnerability to illness, hospitalization, and death. Telehealth can improve access to health care, but its use in PEH has been insufficiently evaluated.
The Use of Telehealth in School-Based Health Centers
Published in Global Pediatric Health this article examines the recent growth of telehealth use in SBHCs, and characteristics of SBHCs using telehealth, including provider types, operational characteristics, and schools and students served.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Telepsychiatry in the Juvenile Justice System
Dr. Deborah Brooks discusses the general role of telepsychiatry in the juvenile justice system.
AAP Adolescent Telehealth Care ECHO - lecture on understanding the unique considerations of providing telehealth care for adolescents who may be experiencing homelessness or are involved in the juvenile justice system.
Medical Complexity
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Pediatrics Research Roundup, Telehealth for Children with Special Needs - Episode 55
This episode starts with the April edition of First Up. Rachel Moon, MD, FAAP, the new associate editor of Digital Media for the journal Pediatrics, joins hosts David Hill, MD, FAAP, and Joanna Parga-Belinkie, MD, FAAP, for a bird’s-eye view of what’s in the journal. The hosts also interview Kilby Mann, MD, FAAP, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado, to get an idea of how telehealth is helping children with special needs. Dr. Katherine Zuckerman, MD, MPH, FAAP, offers a “Giving Voice” segment about disparities in autism diagnoses.
Toddler Tracks Online Autism Resources
Hosted by: Southeast Telehealth Resource Center.
Presented by: Boyd Mark - Program Manager for the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC) and founder of Pediatric Telemedicine of America. Description: 50% or more of young children with autism do not receive treatment due to gaps in access and provider shortages. With CARES Act funding, the South Eastern Telehealth Resource Center and Global Partnership for Telehealth have partnered with autism specialists to develop the “Toddler Tracks” which provides free online early intervention training to parents with children on wait lists for services, continuing ed for healthcare professionals, and access to telehealth services to address this gap.
Research
Telemedicine for Children With Medical Complexity: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Published by the AAP, this article examines a clinical trial comparing telemedicine with CC relative to CC alone for medically complex children in reducing care days outside the home (clinic, emergency department, or hospital; primary outcome), rate of children developing serious illnesses (causing death, ICU admission, or hospital stay >7 days), and health system costs.
Healthcare Utilization of Complex Chronically Ill Children Managed by a Telehealth-Based Team
Frontiers in Pediatrics: Medical advances have improved survival of critically ill children, increasing the number that have substantial ongoing care needs. The first aim of this study was to compare health care utilization of children with complex chronic conditions across an extensive geographic area managed by a predominantly telehealth-based team (FamiLy InteGrated Healthcare Transitions - FLIGHT) compared to matched historical controls. The second aim was to identify risk factors for health care utilization within the FLIGHT population.
Home-Based Telemedicine for Children with Medical Complexity
Children with medical complexity (CMC) are high utilizers of health care services. Telehealth encounters may provide a means to improve care outcomes for this population.
Published by the Maternal Child Health Journal, this article examines effective care coordination as a key quality and safety strategy for populations with chronic conditions, including children with medical complexity (CMC).
Mental Health
Best Practice Guidelines
This article provides a clinical guideline for the delivery of child and adolescent mental health and behavioral services by a licensed health care provider through real-time video conferencing.
Templates
Behavioral Telehealth Session Checklist
Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network provides this checklist, which was put together by Operation PAR Inc. to provide basic guidance for before the telehealth session, conducting the session, and ending the session. Audience: Behavioral health providers using telehealth and looking to improve their interactions with clients or behavioral health providers using telehealth for the first time.
General Resources
Telehealth for Behavioral Healthcare
A general introduction to behavioral telehealth care and the benefits to patients who can access care from their homes with more options for safety, privacy, and convenience.
New Mexico Based Resources
New Mexico State Laws and Policy
Center for Connected Health Policy - New Mexico
New Mexico Senate Bill 354 (direct link to the bill)
New Mexico State Billing Guide
Telemedicine Quick Reference Guide
Created by BlueCross BlueShield of New Mexico to help providers with questions regarding providing telemedicine services and billing for those services. Please note that this does not include federal or state exceptions for the Public Health Emergency for COVID. Audience: Directors and providers offering telemedicine in New Mexico.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Telemedicine Billing & Coding: What You Need to Know
November 2021 (sponsored by the New Mexico Telehealth Alliance)
Representatives from local MCOs and New Mexico Human Services Department answer your questions about telemedicine billing and coding. What do you need to know about billing and coding? Do you have questions about telemed claims that are getting denied? Do you have questions about future changes? These are among the questions answered during this webinar featuring a panel of speakers from all of the local MCOs plus the state of New Mexico (Medicaid).
New Mexico Based Organizations
New Mexico Telehealth Alliance
University of New Mexico Center for Telehealth
Pediatric Specific Telehealth Resources
Best Practice Guidelines
Providing Telehealth and Distance Care Services in Pediatrics
Available FREE from AAP. This is a six-unit course on supporting pediatric health care professionals in providing telehealth and distant care services as part of the medical home model of care. Learners can complete all six units or pick and choose whichever units they would like to complete based on their own needs and current knowledge. Includes downloadable checklists and pages to be used “just in time.”
Telehealth Models for Increasing Access to Care Among Children
This model includes strategies for using telehealth to increase access to care among children. Telehealth is beneficial for children and their families because it expands and enables access to health care services that may otherwise be unavailable, such as mental health care services and specialty care.
Telehealth: Improving Access to and Quality of Pediatric Health Care
AAP Policy Statement from the Section on Telehealth Care, Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, and Committee on Pediatric Workforce. Severe disparities in the availability and access to high-quality health care for children and adolescents continue to exist throughout the United States. Economic and racial factors, geographic maldistribution of primary care pediatricians, and limited availability of pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists all contribute to inequitable access to pediatric care. Robust, comprehensive telehealth coverage is critical to improving pediatric access and quality of care and services, particularly for under-resourced populations.
General Resources
Telemedicine: Pediatric Applications
AAP Technical Report (2015) from the Section on Telehealth Care.
Strategies to Virtually Support and Engage Families of Young Children during Covid-19
This article presents four evidenced-based strategies that emerged from research on engaging and supporting families with young children. Developed, in part, with funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, and Office of Child Care, by the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement.
Tailoring telehealth programs to kids
Children have long been recognized as a population with significant challenges accessing medical care, most notably due to a limited number of pediatric specialists who are concentrated at children’s hospitals in urban settings. And the very nature of face-to-face, traditional health care may place a disproportionate burden on low-income and rural-based families.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Keys to Successful Telehealth Visits with Adolescents
AAP Adolescent Telehealth Care ECHO - lecture on strategies to ensure successful telehealth visits with adolescents and their families.
Telehealth to Improve the Medical Home
An AAP virtual learning community session.
Considerations for Safety and Suicidality in a Telehealth Environment
AAP Practice Management webinar. Dr Gonzalez and Dr Fallucco share practical strategies that pediatric clinicians can use to evaluate patient confidentiality, assess suicide risk and connect patients and families to resources via telehealth.
Understanding Telehealth: Working with Children and Families
Neighborhood health care clinics in California transitioned to virtual services with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Woodworth shares her experience and a few tips for working with children and families through telehealth.
Resources for Caregivers/ Families
General Resources
Telehealth 101: Get Plugged in to Your Child’s Health
Sometimes it's hard to get to the doctor's office. Maybe you can't take off work or your child can't take off school. Your pediatrician's office might offer a visit through a video call or a phone call instead. This is called “telehealth."
Powered by Pediatricians. Trusted by Parents. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and its member pediatricians dedicate their efforts and resources to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The mission of the AAP is to attain optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. To accomplish this mission, the AAP shall support the professional needs of its members.
Telehealth Services Start With Your Pediatrician
Here are some common questions parents may have about telehealth, and tips on working with your pediatrician to make sure your child receives the best care.
Can telehealth “video visits” be a good option for my child? How do they work?
A child's medical care is best provided face-to-face. In certain situations, however, video visits and other telehealth tools used by your pediatrician's office (also known as your “medical home") can be a good option. For some families, it can provide access to high-quality pediatric services they could not otherwise get.
How Telehealth Can Enhance Mental Health Care
If you've noticed your child or teen is struggling in school, having difficulties with family or friends, has changes in how they eat or sleep, or seems depressed, hopeless, anxious, or angry, they may be giving you signs they can use some extra support.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Tips for Child Telehealth Visits
A pediatrician talks to parents about telehealth via YouTube.
Rural Telehealth Resources
Toolkit
A 7-module toolkit from the Rural Health Information Hub, compiles evidence-based and promising models and resources to support organizations in identifying and implementing telehealth programs to address common challenges experienced in rural communities across the United States. Audience: Facility leadership and providers in rural areas.
General Resources
Minimizing Telehealth Barriers in Rural and Underserved Communities
AAP practice management resource.
Rural Telehealth Research Center
The Rural Telehealth Research Center is charged with advancing publicly available, high quality, impartial, clinically informed and policy-relevant telehealth research.
Telehealth 101 (non-pediatric specific)
Best Practice Guidelines
The telehealth.hhs.gov website provides resources on preparing patients for telehealth. This site offers suggestions and steps for obtaining informed consent in a virtual care setting.
Toolkits
General Provider Telehealth and Telemedicine Tool Kit
This comprehensive document from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) contains electronic links to reliable sources of information regarding telehealth and telemedicine. Most of the information is directed towards providers who may want to establish a permanent telemedicine program. There are specific documents for selecting vendors, initiating a telemedicine program, monitoring patients remotely, and developing documentation tools. Audience: Facility directors ready to establish a telemedicine program.
Setting Up Tele-behavioral Health Service
This step-by-step guide provided by the Indian Health Services is meant to be comprehensive, touching upon everything that may need to be considered in setting up tele-behavioral health services at your site. Audience: Facility directors and providers serving tribal and Indigenous populations.
Telehealth Implementation Playbook
Learn more about identifying the need for telehealth, finding a vendor, designing the workflow, implementing and scaling from the American Medical Association. Audience: Executive leadership who are assessing telehealth and how to implement it at their facility.
Telehealth Program Developer Kit
From the California Telehealth Resource Center. “The CTRC Program Developer was designed to assist in developing and implementing telehealth services. This guide provides an overview on the process and the activities and information you will collect during each of the development phases. Each of the steps is designed to allow an organization to consider critical aspects of development and to support decision making.” Audience: Executive leadership who are assessing telehealth and how to implement it at their facility.
A Toolkit for Building and Growing a Sustainable Telehealth Program in Your Practice
Telehealth services and payment, roles and responsibilities, licensing and legal requirements, technology, workflow, and family medicine scenarios. Toolkit from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Audience: Executive leadership who are assessing telehealth and how to implement it at their facility.
Organizational Assessment Toolkit for Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration
Designed by a team of integration experts and offered by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the Organizational Assessment Toolkit for primary and behavioral health care Integration (OATI) provides a compendium of tools that lay out a path for organizations to assess their readiness for integration, as well as benchmarking opportunities for those organizations well down the line in integration efforts. Audience: Facility directors and providers looking to integrate primary care and behavioral health.
General Resources
Programs to Improve Telehealth Services in Remote Areas
Home page of the HRSA Office of the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) with descriptions of programs and links to funding to promote and improve telehealth services in rural areas. Audience: Executive leadership for clinics/facilities in rural areas.
Telehealth Start-Up and Resource Guide
Covering telehealth versus telemedicine, ATA and AMA guidelines, startup to sustainability, telehealth module and outlook, reimbursement guide, Medicaid, Medicare billing, CNM code information and other resources. This start-up and resource guide was created in partnership between Telligen and gpTRAC, the GreatPlains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center. Audience: Facility directors ready to establish a telemedicine program.
Telemedicine and Non-Telemedicine Visit Experience Interview Guides
Survey tool for providers, patients and staff to assess the telehealth experience from the University of Rochester.
Comparing 11 top telehealth platforms: Company execs tout quality, safety, EHR integrations
Article from Healthcare IT News. Audience: Executive leadership and facility directors.
The Top 30 Tools for Improving your Telehealth Implementation
Telehealth tools, hardware, software, monitoring and on-demand portals from Cambridge Brain Sciences. Audience: Executive leadership and facility directors.
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
Telemedicine: Where Do I Start?
July 2020, 1:03:41. Project ECHO, along with Shepherd’s Clinic, UV Medicine and CommonSpirit Health, offer an expert guided video on how to start and navigate telemedicine. Audience: Facility directors ready to establish a telemedicine program.
The New Normal: Tips for Making Telemedicine Part of Your Permanent Practice
September 2020, 1:02:46. In this video, Alaska Native Medical Center and Shoshone Family Medical Center join together via Project ECHO to help participants understand tactics to develop a well-rounded telehealth program: move telemedicine into part of your standard operations; outline the elements of a telemedicine quality program; understand considerations of health equity in your telemedicine program and proactively and reactively address patient barriers; and outline infrastructure components needed to support ongoing success of your telehealth program. Audience: Facility directors ready to establish a telemedicine program.
Top Five Clinical Best Practices for Telehealth
April 2020, 10:08. Mary Ellen Evers, LCSW, CAADC, a registered tele-behavioral health clinician for mental health and addiction services and a tele-behavioral health trainer for the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, shares her top five clinical best practices for providing services via telehealth platforms.
Top Five Tips for Telehealth Implementation
April 2020, 9:22. Kathy Wibberly, the Director of the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center located at the University of Virginia's Karen S. Rheuban Center for Telehealth, gives her top five tips for successful implementation of telehealth services.
Telehealth Immersion Program Mini-bootcamp: What’s Next for Telehealth?
American Medical Association: This interactive session provided participants with a recap of the 2021 Telehealth Immersion Program by highlighting both physician and practice wins and providing an overview of the telehealth landscape for the future, including key policy changes for 2022.
Telehealth Training
General Resources
National Consortium of Telehealth Resources
Free resources funded by federal Health and Human Services. Building a telehealth program? Browse through this sampling of resources from their Telehealth Resource Centers. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, use the contact form or give them a call. They have an abundance of resources available to share.
Training Opportunities
Weitzman ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) provides specialty support for primary care providers. Pediatric topics include: childhood trauma, complex integrated pediatrics, and pediatric and adolescent behavioral health.
For-profit organization provides credentialing and certificate courses for competencies (ethical, legal, technological, clinical) in telehealth. CME. Audience: Health care organizations, clinicians.
CME: The Arizona Telemedicine Training Program and the Southwest Telehealth Resource Center offer 1-day training courses on telemedicine and telehealth.
October 2020, 59:41. National Consortium of Telehealth Resources
The Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center (TTAC) has seen a significant shift in choosing telehealth technology for providing patient care, most specifically in choosing video conferencing platforms and providing care to the patient in the home, both from the provider and the consumer perspective. TTAC gives a short overview of the changing trends being observed now and in the future.
Workflows and Documentation
Webinars/Podcasts/Videos
August 2020, 1:02:00. The California Telehealth Resource Center, along with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Mary’s Center, offers an ECHO video presentation showing the basics of facilitating workflow conversations, creating workflow maps, and how to pull together and lead successful teams. Audience: Executive leadership, facility directors and providers.
Clinical Best Practices and the Art of the Tele-Physical Exam
September 2020, 59:31. This video aims to help providers understand the process of conducting a telemedicine visit, select the equipment needed to conduct a physical assessment through telemedicine, collect physical data through a videoconferencing session without peripherals, and utilize creative strategies to obtain clinical data. Provided by the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO is a joint effort with the Center for Telehealth Innovation, Education, & Research; Old Dominion University; and the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center. Audience: Primary care providers.