Salisbury, NC - March 31, 2020 – Beautiful Dentistry will be using Zoom Video Communication Inc’s remote communication technology to conduct problem-focused evaluations/re-evaluations virtually, to help manage your oral health problem and to determine whether you have a condition that requires immediate in-office treatment. During the current pandemic the federal government announced that it will not enforce HIPAA regulations (privacy for health records) in connection with medical and dental offices’ good faith provision of medical or dental services using non-public facing audio or video remote communications services. Remote patient consultations may take place over applications that allow video chats such as Apple Face Time, Facebook Messenger video chat, Google Hangouts, or Skype and may involve or be based on photos or 8 videos taken with smart phones by the patient and transmitted to the dental office. Please do not contact us using public-facing services such as Facebook Live, Twitch, or TikTok, which are not permitted by the federal government for this purpose.
As always, our office will take dental record confidentiality very seriously, and will do what we can under the circumstances to protect the information you send us. While we believe the risk to such confidentiality is not high, it may be greater than it would be if these remote electronic communications were encrypted, which is one of the main HIPAA requirement that is being relaxed during the nationwide COVID-19 public health emergency.
Certain major dental plans have announced that they will reimburse dental offices for conducting such remote evaluations, and we will submit claims in connection with them. Our dental office is using one or more of the permitted modalities listed above for remote transmission of information to conduct limited problem focused evaluations. While entirely adequate in the vast majority of cases for such limited purposes, these evaluations may not reveal conditions that would be discovered during an office visit or through the use of specialized teledentistry technology.
The ADA has been reaching out to third party payers to determine their policies with regards to payment for services rendered using telecommunication technology. Below is the information we have collected thus far. The ADA has also been following guidance being issued by CMS de-regulating telehealth and offering benefits for virtual check-ins as a means to support primary care. We are exploring if this guidance applies to dental care. The ADA advises that all patient encounters using telecommunication technology continue to be appropriately documented in the patient’s record including date/time/duration of encounter, reasons for such encounter and associated clinical notes.
To schedule a teledentistry appointment, please call or email our office for further information.
Address: 1401 W Innes St Salisbury, NC 28144
Phone: (704) 633‑2612
Email: help@piedmontdds.com
Beautiful Dentistry has been in practice since 2001. The vision of Beautiful Dentistry is to provide each patient with individualized quality dental care while remaining at the cusp of technology. The state of the art office features the latest in Dental Technology, which allows Beautiful Dentistry to provide patients with the best care available in North Carolina.
For more information about Beautiful Dentistry and our dental team, please visit piedmontdds.com and facebook.com/piedmontdds.
Media Contact
Beautiful Dentistry
704.633.2612
help@piedmontdds.com