Telehealth Psychiatry & Therapy Services
Telepsychiatry, a subset of telemedicine, can provide a range of services, including psychiatric evaluations, therapy (individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy), patient education, and medication management. Telepsychiatry can involve direct interaction between a psychiatrist and the patient.
Telehealth psychiatry & therapy is the use of digital information and communication technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access psychiatric services remotely and manage your mental health. These can be technologies you use from home or that your doctor uses to improve or support mental health care services.
Kentucky Mental Health Care provides Telehealth psychiatry & therapy services to those clients who are unable to make it into our offices. With new Medicaid regulations, you can get medication, therapy, IOP, MAT, and social assistance, all without ever leaving your home or worrying about transportation.
TeleHealth Psychiatry & Therapy
We are here for you, wherever you are! We now offer Online Counseling and Web Therapy. Over 50 million Americans each year suffer from mental health issues. Many do not seek help due to travel and time-away barriers. Kentucky Mental Health Care is working daily to break down those barriers and deliver the support when you need it most.
Kentucky Mental Health Care is now offering the convenience of online counseling and telepsychiatry. We operate using a patient-centered approach to mental health treatment that focuses on your strengths. We are happy to provide therapy online with web-based sessions that are as secure and confidential as an actual office visit from the comfort of your own home.
- Visit a psychiatrist, nurse practitioner, or therapist by video or phone.
- Visits are convenient, private, and secure. Protection is our priority.
- Prescriptions can be sent directly to your local pharmacy.
How Telehealth & Telepsychiatry Works
- Using a secure, live video chat technology, you’ll connect with a Kentucky Mental Health Care mental health provider in Louisville, Ky.
- The video platform used is similar to other video conferencing platforms such as Skype or Google Meet but is offered through a secure, encrypted service.
- Together, Kentucky Mental Heath caregivers will develop a personalized plan to meet your mental health needs.
Benefits of Telepsychiatry
Video-based telepsychiatry helps meet patients’ needs for convenient, affordable, and readily accessible mental health services. It can benefit patients in a number of ways, such as:
- Improve access to mental health specialty care that might not otherwise be available (e.g., in rural areas)
- Bring care to the patient’s location
- Help integrate behavioral health care and primary care, leading to better outcomes
- Reduce the need for trips to the emergency room
- Reduce delays in care
- Improve continuity of care and follow-up
- Reduce the need for time off work, childcare services, etc. to access appointments far away
- Reduce potential transportation barriers, such as lack of transportation or the need for long drives
- Reduce the barrier of stigma
While some people may be reluctant or feel awkward talking to a person on a screen, experience shows most people are comfortable with it. Some people may be more relaxed and willing to open up from the comfort of their home or a convenient local facility. Also, this will likely be less of a problem as people become more familiar and comfortable with video communication in everyday life.
Telepsychiatry allows psychiatrists to treat patients in distant locations or where the cross commute makes it prohibitive. Psychiatrists and clinicians need to be licensed in the state(s) where the patient they are working with is located. State licensing boards and legislatures view the patient’s location as the place where “the practice of medicine” occurs. Rest assured that all Kentucky Mental Health Care providers are licensed in Kentucky and able to deliver Telehealth services.
Although telepsychiatry has the disadvantage of the patient and psychiatrist not being in the same room, it can create enhanced feelings of safety, security, and privacy for many patients.
Evidence for Effectiveness
There is substantial evidence of the effectiveness of telepsychiatry, and research has found satisfaction to be high among patients, psychiatrists, and other professionals. Telepsychiatry is equivalent to in-person care in diagnostic accuracy, treatment effectiveness, quality of care, and patient satisfaction. Patient privacy and confidentiality are equivalent to in-person care.
Research has also found that overall experiences among all age groups have been good. There is evidence for children, adolescents, and adults regarding assessment and treatment (medication and therapy). There are even people for which telemedicine may be preferable to in-person care; for example, people with severe anxiety disorders and patients with physical limitations may find the remote treatment particularly useful.
Telepsychiatry has been found especially effective for the treatment of PTSD, depression, and ADHD. See more on the evidence base for telepsychiatry.
Used in a Variety of Settings
Telepsychiatry is used in various settings, including our private practice, outpatient clinic, and we also offer services to schools, nursing homes, and correctional facilities.
Cost and Insurance
Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia have laws that govern private payer reimbursement for telehealth (Image: The Public Health Institute/The Center for Connected Health Policy, State Telehealth Laws and Reimbursement Policy Spring 2020 Report).
Fifty states and Washington, D.C., and Kentucky now reimburse for some form of live video telehealth in Medicaid fee-for-service. Comparatively, only 16 state Medicaid programs reimburse for store-and-forward services (“asynchronous telemedicine”).
That said, state Medicaid policies, rules, and laws are continuing to evolve. Medicare will reimburse for telepsychiatry services if the community is considered rural and requires the patient to report to an “Originating Site,” unless that patient has a substance use disorder (Medicare will also cover any co-occurring diagnosis) under the SUPPORT Act. During a public health emergency, Medicare beneficiaries, regardless of geographic location, may be seen in the home (Medicare Telemedicine Health Care Fact Sheet).
Definition of TeleHealth Terms
Capture and then transfer data from one site to another through the use of a camera or similar device that records (stores) an image that is sent (forwarded) via telecommunication to another site for consultation.
The site where the physician or other licensed practitioner delivering the service is located when the service is provided via a telecommunications system.
Health care practice supported by electronic processes and communication. Kentucky Mental Health Care and Kentucky Recovery operates as both as an eHealth and in-person multi-specialty mental health care practice.
A systematic collection of electronic health information about individual patients or populations recorded in digital format and capable of being shared across health care settings via information networks or exchanges. EHRs generally include patient demographics, medical history, medication, allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology and other medical images, vital signs, characteristics such as age and weight, and billing information.
The electronic generation, transmission, and filling of medical prescriptions instead of traditional paper and faxed prescriptions. E-prescribing allows qualified health care personnel to send new prescriptions or renewals to community or mail-order pharmacies.
Acronym for Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information, sets national standards for the security of electronically protected health information, and protects identifiable information being used to analyze patient safety events and improve patient safety. More about HIPAA.
Location of the patient at the time the service is provided via a telecommunications system.
Interactive video connections that transmit information in both directions during the same time.
Interactive electronic communication (voice, video, and/or data transmission) through the computer or smartphone between multiple users at two or more sites.
Consultation between a provider and specialist located at a distance using either store and forward telemedicine or real-time videoconferencing.
Telemedicine in psychiatry, using video conferencing, is a validated and effective practice of medicine that increases access to care. The American Psychiatric Association supports the use of telemedicine as a legitimate component of a mental health delivery system to the extent that its use is for the benefit of the patient, protects patient autonomy, confidentiality, and privacy; and when used consistent with APA policies on medical ethics and applicable governing law.