#Cigna commercial virtual health app full

#Cigna commercial virtual health app full

'It's not just an important step in responding to the current health emergency - it's a forward-thinking shift that will help the profession show its value in the full range of telehealth once the current crisis is over.'Įlliott thinks the insurers deserve credit for their willingness to innovate. 'This is a significant moment,' said Carmen Elliott, APTA's vice president of payment and practice management. APTA consulted with the payers as they considered the changes. Unlike CMS, which is permitting coverage of some services furnished remotely by PTs - including e-visits, virtual check-ins, remote evaluation of recorded video or images, and telephone assessment and management services - the commercial benefit changes represent a key upgrade: They provide for reimbursement of services using interactive video that allows clinicians and patients to see and hear each other in real time, with patients performing movements that their PT or PTA can observe and adjust remotely. Over the past weeks, insurance giants Cigna, Aetna, and UnitedHealthcare have each announced temporary benefit changes allowing PTs to bill for most therapy codes delivered by way of telehealth. One such innovation: allowing PTs and PTAs to provide telehealth services by reimbursing for real-time face-to-face modalities as well as non-real time and non-face-to-face services. But the COVID-19 pandemic is flipping that narrative, as some insurers innovate their way past CMS to increase patient access to care. Will the innovations gain traction?įor many PTs and PTAs, it's an all-too-familiar pattern: CMS makes a rule change or payment adjustment, and sooner or later commercial insurers follow suit.

Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Cigna have moved forward with face-to-face telehealth delivered by PTs during the COVID-19 pandemic.