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The purpose of this bulletin is to notify providers of planned changes to the Telehealth Services Supplement – a supplement to multiple manuals, including the Addiction Recovery and Treatment Services (ARTS), Psychiatric Services, Mental Health Services and Physician-Practitioner Manuals.

DMAS intends to update the Telehealth Services Supplement to continue allowing delivery of certain outpatient psychiatric and ARTS services via audio-only telehealth that are at present allowed under the authority of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). The federal COVID-19 PHE is set to expire on May 11, 2023 and the planned changes will allow continued audio-only telehealth delivery of the following CPT codes:

For information on technical and professional components of billed CPT codes, providers should refer to the most current CPT codebook published by the American Medical Association.

Providers must continue to follow the conditions for telehealth reimbursement outlined in the Reimbursable Telehealth Services section of the Telehealth Services Supplement when providing audio-only telehealth services. Documentation for services delivered via audio-only telehealth are the same as for a comparable in-person service. Providers should continue to bill for audio-only telehealth as they normally would if the service was provided in-person until otherwise notified. Additional reimbursement and billing guidelines for audio-only telehealth services will be included in a forthcoming update to the Telehealth Services Supplement.

DMAS will continue to evaluate whether there are additional CPT/HCPCS codes that should be authorized for audio-only telehealth coverage after the end of the Federal PHE.  Future audio-only telehealth policy changes will be included in updates to the Telehealth Services Supplement.

DMAS will be holding a training regarding the telehealth update on Monday, April 24th, 2023 via Webex. The training will be recorded and posted to the DMAS Behavioral Health webpage along with the PowerPoint: Training and Resources (virginia.gov)

Additional information on the end of COVID-19 PHE provider flexibilities is available on the DMAS website at https://www.dmas.virginia.gov/covid-19-response/. Providers may email the DMAS Behavioral Health Division at enhancedbh@dmas.virginia.gov with questions regarding this bulletin.