Photo by Julia M Cameron:Â https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-notebook-4145190/
Earlier this year I completed a 15 hour course on telemental health services. One of the biggest takeaways from that training is recognizing that online therapy is no longer a fad, as it may have seemed to be during the pandemic. If anything, it is gaining in popularity and is here to stay. Not only are more companies offering online services, but many test takers have reported an increase in exam questions as well pertaining to the methods and ethics surrounding this increasingly popular way of services. So even if this is not how you plan to or are currently offering your services, I would be familiar with this way of providing treatment as you prepare for your exam.
Below are the Legal Guidelines for Providing Telehealth in California. Next week, I will share the ethical and practice standards for telehealth. Come back soon for a practice question related to this topic!
California law defines “telehealth” as the “mode of delivering health-care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient’s health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at a distant site…and includes synchronous interactions and asynchronous store and forward transfers” (B&PC 229.05). Synchronous interaction refers to real-time interaction between a patient and a health-care provider located at a distant site; and asynchronous store and forward means the transmission of a patient’s medical information from an originating site to the health-care provider at a distant site without the presence of the patient.
California’s Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011 allowed the expansion of telehealth providers to include all licensed health-care professionals.Â
B&PC Section 2290.5 requires health-care providers to obtain verbal or written consent from clients prior to initiating telehealth services and to document the consent in the client record; and stipulates that all laws regarding confidentiality of health-care information and a patient’s rights to his/her medical information apply to telehealth interactions.
The following requirements:
All persons engaging in the practice of mental health services via telehealth with a client who is physically located in California must have a valid and current license or registration issued by the Board.
As part of the informed consent process for telehealth, mental health professionals must inform clients “of the potential risks and limitations to receiving treatment via telehealth”; document efforts “to ascertain the contact information of relevant resources; including emergency services in the client’s geographic area,” and notify clients of their license or registration number and type of license or registration.
Each time they provide telehealth services to a client, mental health professionals must (a) obtain and document the client’s name and address and his/her current location at the start of the session, (b) assess whether telehealth is appropriate for the client, and (c) use best practices to ensure the client’s confidentiality and the security of the services.
A licensee or registrant of California may provide telehealth services to clients located in another jurisdiction only if they meet the requirements to lawfully provide services in that jurisdiction, and delivery of services via telehealth is allowed by that jurisdiction.Â