HIPAA Compliant Teletherapy

As a mental health professional working in today’s social climate, you’re probably seeing explosive growth in the demand for your services. People are finally beginning to accept that it’s perfectly ok and even necessary to seek the mental health help they deserve and as a provider, that’s great news for you.

But how will you keep up with this demand? In lieu of “in person” traditional face-to-face therapy, offering online therapy using an easy and secure platform like HIPAA Video will be a key driver of your success in this landscape. Teletherapy means that you can accommodate far more patients than traditional in person therapy, helping you boost your practice’s profit and offering you the scheduling flexibility you’ve always been looking for.

Plus, with the uncertainty around the Covid 19 pandemic, teletherapy offers the safety of social distancing to both therapist and client so there is no disruption to your practice or to your patients’ lives.

How Teletherapy can improve your practice

Teletherapy, using a simple, cloud-based and compliant platform like HIPAA Video, can improve your
practice by increasing your practice’s business performance, simplifying its overall management and
improving patient relationships in ways that weren’t possible before.

Improve results for patients

Teletherapy shapes the therapy experience for patients in ways that help them see better results. Teletherapy allows you to set up more frequent, brief touchpoints with patients (outside of normal appointment slots) throughout their therapy journey so you can monitor progress more closely. The HIPAA Video platform also offers tools like robust chat functionalities and built-in recording abilities, making it easier for you to keep accurate records of sessions and progress, allowing you to react quicker to patient needs.

Gain the freedom to practice remotely

Therapists usually must be licensed in the state where the patient is receiving the therapy and under the jurisdiction of that state’s mental health licensing board. This means that in-person appointments require both the therapist and patient to be physically present in the same state. Teletherapy gives you the freedom and flexibility to practice remotely by allowing you to have a license to operate in one state and reside and practice teletherapy from a different state/- jurisdiction, as long as the patient remains in the state in which you are licensed.

Decrease overhead costs

For many therapists, office rental costs have made up a large chunk of their overhead expenses, particularly in larger cities. Teletherapy gives you the option to give up your office, maybe even for good. Reducing this huge monthly expenditure can greatly boost profitability while also giving you the comfort of working from your own home or preferred space. HIPAA Video also gives therapists easy options to add assistants to office workflows, decreasing the need for in-person, front desk support, further driving down overhead costs.

Reduce schedule errors and no-shows

You’ve been there. You have a patient in your calendar for Thursday but his calendar has the appointment for Wednesday. Now the patient has no alternative time and you have to scramble to fill up the empty slot. HIPAA Video helps you avoid these headaches by providing integrated calendar tools that help with accurate scheduling and automatic appointment reminders, both of which reduce no-shows by up to 30% in comparison to in-person therapy.

Improve practice efficiency

Teletherapy shouldn’t complicate the day-to-day operations of your practice. The right teletherapy platform will provide easy-to-use features that seamlessly integrate into your existing workflows and software tools. HIPAA Video integrates (via API) with EMR/EHR (Electronic Medical Records) and popular practice management software so you can add HIPAA compliant teletherapy easily to your existing office management platform(s).

Adhere to Covid-19 guidelines

Many states now have social distancing rules in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic which make it impossible to see patients in a physical office. Offering live video conferencing is a reliable alternative that allows you to continue seeing patients while adhering to these state mandates. HIPAA Video’s platform is cloud-based and easy to use meaning you can get Teletherapy up and running quickly with your clients in a way that’s compliant with state-mandated guidelines.

Open up more of your schedule

With packed schedules, patients are finding it tough to squeeze in their much-needed therapy appointments and you might have found it just as challenging to accommodate their demanding or unusual schedules. Teletherapy gives you the flexibility to hold sessions during times that may normally be considered “off-hours”, such as someone needing an emergency session or a patient seeking cognitive behavioral therapy who needs an extended amount of time. Opening up more time in your schedule for appointments helps you see more patients in a day, increasing your practices’ revenue, not to mention your overall impact within your community.

Ensure your practice grows

According to recent research, the rate that younger people are seeking mental health care help has spiked significantly and Millennials and Gen Z are quickly becoming known as the “therapy generations. Digital tools are a lifeline for these newer generations of patients so you need to make sure that your practice aligns to their lifestyle needs. Integrating an easy and secure teletherapy platform like HIPAA Video is a no-brainer for making sure that your practice thrives as you attract younger patients into the future.

What are the benefits of Teletherapy for patients?

Patients do a lot of tough work in therapy and sometimes it can be unpleasant and stressful. The last thing you want to do is add complexity to their lives by deciding to use a complicated teletherapy platform. HIPAA Video provides benefits to patients by removing any additional burdens for the patient that might get in the way of progress through a platform that everyone, no matter how tech savvy, will find easy to use.

The bottom line is, Teletherapy sessions work!

Offer scheduling and location flexibility

Teletherapy shapes the therapy experience for patients in ways that help them see better results. Teletherapy allows you to set up more frequent, brief touchpoints with patients (outside of normal appointment slots) throughout their therapy journey so you can monitor progress more closely. The HIPAA Video platform also offers tools like robust chat functionalities and built-in recording abilities, making it easier for you to keep accurate records of sessions and progress, allowing you to react quicker to patient needs.

Provide patients with safety during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced patients to balance their increasing mental health therapy needs with the need to stay safe and socially distant. HIPAA Video’s cloud-based teletherapy platform provides a simple interface that requires no training or downloads and works with any device and operating system, so patients can easily transition to teletherapy without any headaches.

Avoid breaks in therapy

Just because you go out of town doesn’t mean your patients have to skip their sessions. Since teletherapy offers you the flexibility to work remotely, your patients also benefit by avoiding breaks in their therapy journey.

Seeing patients from outside your office creates obvious challenges with HIPAA Compliant TeleTherapy.  HIPAA Video allows you to host video conference sessions knowing that end-to-end encryption and robust two-factor authentication technologies are working to protect patient data.

Stay clear of schedule mishaps

Scheduling mishaps can cause major disruptions to your patient’s well-being as well to their progress. HIPAA Video provides integrated calendar tools and alerts that help patients avoid schedule mishaps or conflicts, ensuring that patients continue to reap the benefits of their therapy.

Our therapist users report an average of 30% fewer missed sessions when calendar invites and appointment reminders are used with patient scheduling.

What are the challenges of teletherapy?

Results of randomized controlled trials indicate high client acceptance and positive outcomes with this method of delivering psychotherapy. Nonetheless, psychotherapists wishing to deliver psychotherapy by telemedicine face a number of challenges. 

Difficulty conveying empathy through screens

Teletherapy offers a host of benefits for both providers and patients. Though most therapists agree on the value of using Teletherapy, a key challenge they grapple with is being able to effectively convey empathy through a computer screen the way they do with an in-person treatment plan. After all, many of the subtle facial cues of communication that convey empathy can get lost through a static screen. 

This concern is inspiring therapists to rethink their “bedside manner” as they turn toward teletherapy. While speaking through a screen can’t ever replicate a face-to-face discussion, there are certain basic tips to consider as you begin to conduct teletherapy sessions.

  • Practice in front of the web camera: Speaking to a camera doesn’t
    come naturally to everyone. You might find it helpful to have a few practice sessions to get used to being on camera before fully diving into
    teletherapy.
  • Pay even more attention to eye contact: It’s easy to get distracted
    when you’re sitting in front of your computer so it’s even more important
    that you pay attention to maintaining eye contact when speaking and
    listening through the computer camera.
  • Maintain the right environment: You’ve put effort into making your physical office a safe, comfortable and relaxing space for your patients. Take the same approach with your teletherapy location. Maintain a background that is professional, uncluttered and calm and keep yourself well-lit and visible during sessions.

Lack of patient privacy at home

Teletherapy provides patients with the benefit of participating in therapy sessions from the comfort of their own home. But not everyone has a comfortable or private home environment. Many patients struggle to find a quiet, private space in their home so therapy conversations are often within earshot of parents, roommates, partners, children and others. 

In these situations, patients may end up logging into sessions from locations with poor internet connections such as their cars, garages, outdoor decks and patios which can result in choppy or dropped sessions. For these patients, therapists can open up extended teletherapy hours, providing patients with the option to schedule their online therapy sessions during less than ideal times that allow for more privacy with access to a strong internet signal.

Teletherapy and COVID-19

My patients are all currently residing all over the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Will Teletherapy allow me to continue providing services to them? 

Generally speaking, your patient must participate in the therapy session from the state/jurisdiction where you have a license. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, many state licensing boards have loosened certain practicing restrictions which may provide you with more flexibility in terms of where your patients can be located when receiving therapy. We recommend that you check with your state’s licensing board to understand the specific changes.

HIPAA Video Capabilities for
Teletherapy

For the Health of Your Practice.

For the Health of Your Patients.

5.0 from 5 reviews
Ratings and reviews
  • 5.0 from 5 reviews
  • 2021-02-10

    Susan Blum, LCSW, New York, NY.

    I am thrilled with how robust and simple the system is, and with the clarity of both the video and the audio transmission. Best by far of any platform I've tried! I know this will enhance my practice, and I am very grateful to you and to the rest of the team for doing all the behind the scene work so that we therapists can focus on our patient.

  • 2021-02-07

    Dr Bob Goldberg, New York, NY.

    It probably goes without saying that this experience was completely different from my outreach to Zoom to learn more about their HIPAA-compliant platform. It's been over a week since I got a form email from them saying that someone would be back in touch with me "as soon as possible." Not holding my breath… Any colleagues I speak to have found Zoom to be confusing and/or unresponsive. All this, for Zoom's outrageous charge of $200/month.

  • 2021-02-07

    Dr. Stephanie Wellon, M. Ed, PA

    I am forever grateful for the day that I made contact with you by phone. It was to my surprise (amid a public health crisis due to Covid -19) that I was able to actually speak with a live person that is and after scurrying through many websites and contacts to inquire about tele-counseling options to support the students in our school district.

  • 2020-09-01

    Dr. Efi Inyang, Clinton, MD.

    Thank you for helping us to make a smooth transition to HipaaVideo with the sudden change we had to make in light of the Corona virus pandemic. Our clinicians are able to hold their therapy sessions and the doctor is able to see her patients for medication management with ease. It is also great that your system is Hipaa compliant. We are already recommending HipaaVideo to others and will continue to highly recommend it.

  • 2020-04-08

    Dr. Terry Martin & Bob Cayne Scottsdale, AZ.

    HIPAAVIDEO.NET fits perfectly with our digital practice, NoCouchTherapy.com that conducts telehealth sessions globally. Thank you, Frank and Marlene.