When it comes to online scheduling, Acuity is my favorite of the HIPAA-compliant platforms out there, making it easy-peasy for someone to land on my website, learn about my services, and book an appointment all without any texting back-and-forth about time. But Acuity can do so much more for you—and even increase client self-efficacy.
You may not be aware of this, but one important component of HIPAA is that you must post your Notice of Privacy Practices on your website.
Now that so many lactation consultants are incorporating virtual consults into their services, questions are coming up about how to get tele-lactation covered by insurance (for in-network providers) and reimbursed out-of-network. In this article, I’ll cover the most common questions I’ve seen and point you to more in-depth resources so that you can be as informed as you possibly can be.
While most clinicians can agree that nothing can replace an in-person lactation consult with a family in need of help feeding their baby, virtual consults are becoming more and more popular as a way to make services more accessible. In order to meet your ethical obligations and stay within your scope of practice as an IBCLC or other lactation credential, you’ll want to keep some key factors in mind.
If you’re newly certified IBCLC or a hospital IBCLC looking to transition into private practice, you may be wondering what you must have in place before you can begin seeing clients.
Being HIPAA compliant isn’t optional for IBCLCs. Our clients are entitled to insurance reimbursement for our services under the Affordable Care Act. In order for them to be able to submit the appropriate paperwork, we need to have an NPI number, and that number is what transforms us into a HIPAA-covered entity. In order to help you understand your responsibilities under HIPAA, I’ve created this free guide.
When I wrote my books and created my legal forms, I made sure to hire an attorney to carefully go over everything I was saying. I wanted to provide the most accurate, up-to-date, and ethical information possible. My lawyer Linda Strauss has been absolutely amazing–not only does she know the law, she also knows the birth world and was recommended to me by another IBCLC.
From being a part of the IBCLC community for so many years now, I’ve seen certain concerns arise time and time again.
If you’re a lactation consultant in the US, then you know that the Affordable Care Act says that lactation consults should be covered as preventive services. But the reality is that many of our clients are NOT getting reimbursement for our services. If you’re anything like me, you’re disturbed at hearing that your clients are having to submit their superbills multiple times, or that they’re not even submitting them at all. You’re wondering which codes to use, and what to do to help your clients get reimbursed. While there are no magic formulas to use with the insurance companies that will guarantee any outcome for your clients, there are some simple strategies that you can use to maximize their chances.
Many of us live in countries with privacy regulations that affect our business activities. Additionally, IBCLCs have an ethical obligation to protect client privacy that may supersede our legal obligations. Secure messaging offers our clients the highest level of privacy and by making it available to our clients we can meet our legal and our ethical obligations at the highest level.
Are you an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) working in the United States? Then you are obligated to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act. This basically means that you must be very, very careful in how you store your clients’ information and how you communicate with them–and you may have no idea how some of the practices you take for granted may be putting Protected Health Information (PHI) at risk.
