Upcoming Changes To Online Therapy In Maryland

Curious about how upcoming changes may impact online therapy?

In 2020, emergency measures were put in place to reduce barriers for people to access mental health care online when everything shut down real quick due to COVID and in-person sessions were no longer an option. These changes were covered under the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) designation. With the PHE set to end on May 11, 2023, you may be curious about how online therapy may be impacted.

Online Therapy In Maryland

The Public Health Emergency was a federal declaration that was meant to provide continuity of care for as many people as possible throughout the country. With the upcoming end to that provision, many guidelines about online therapy/telehealth will now differ from state to state. What’s accepted and covered in California may be very different than what’s ok in New York. As a therapist licensed in Maryland, I can mostly only speak to what’s going on here in the Old Line State.

How did the PHE reduce Barriers for online therapy?

Cast your mind back to March of 2020 and recall how quickly everything went from “Maybe something’s brewing out there” to “Complete lockdown”. Schools closed, restaurants shut their doors and most medical and behavioral health appointments went completely online. We were scrambling to figure out online learning, where to find toilet paper to buy, and getting work and appointments done in the virtual world. Many companies moved quickly to try and offer secure online options for appointments but it was a mess. The Public Health Emergency made it possible for everyone to do the best they could with what technology was available. Rules about needing to use a HIPAA-compliant secure connection were relaxed so people could get the care they needed with FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc. This made it easier and more affordable for accessible care to be offered widely and it worked! Therapists jumped right into offering sessions online and current, and new, clients could get the care they needed during a difficult and uncertain time.

The PHE also made it so that Telehealth options were covered by insurance, starting at the federal level through plans like Medicare. State emergency orders were in place throughout the country as well, which influenced state laws and private insurance companies to cover Telehealth as well. Many policies reduced or waived copays during this time as well, in order to improve access to care. As state emergency orders ended or expired, some of those provisions changed as state laws and insurance policies set their guidelines about coverage. Federal programs were still under the jurisdiction of the PHE.

What’s Changing in online therapy in maryland with the end of the PHE?

Those relaxed standards are going away. After the end of the PHE, online therapy appointments will need to occur over secure, compliant platforms in order to meet requirements for privacy protection and confidentiality. No more FaceTime. There are a lot of different ways to access secure, compliant connections, so the switch shouldn’t be very complicated. Some providers will use platforms specially made for secure healthcare appointments. Others will use the paid , HIPAA-compliant versions of common video platforms, like Zoom or Google Meet—these all require a special document called a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to be signed by the provider and the video company. Consumers should be able to easily connect with their therapists over these secure channels through the links therapists will send out. A very recent extension was granted to give providers a little more time to transition to full compliance. That 90 day extention, after the end of the PHE, will end on August 9th, 2023 so therapists do a have a few months to make sure that this transition is complete and compliant, in case there are challenges in getting technology all squared away.

If you’ve been doing online therapy with a provider for a while, you may or may not have signed a separate Telehealth Consent Form when you started up your sessions. It was another one of those things that was not enforced in the beginning, but many states have already put laws into place to require these consent forms to be signed. Folks in the last remaining states will be getting on board with this and all clients participating in online therapy should sign a Telehealth Consent Form, provided by the therapist. Informed consent is a very important thing in therapy—making sure that you are informed about the potential benefits and risks of treatment so that you can make a mindful decision about what is best for you. Telehealth Consent Forms lay out the benefits and risks of online therapy so you can be clear about what you are signing up for, before you begin.

What about Insurance Coverage for Online THerapy In Maryland?

This is something that is going to differ based on the policies set by each insurance company, and is always changing. If you are checking with your insurance company to see what benefits you have for therapy, ask specifically if Telehealth appointments are covered the same as in-person appointments, for both in-network or out-of-network care. Remember that consumer demand is powerful and if you love the way that Telehealth can improve your access to consistent care, make your opinions known.

What’s not changing with online therapy?

Online therapy has been a game changer for a lot of folks and it looks like it is here to stay, in some form or another. Consumers love the reduced barriers in getting to appointments consistently. Providers love the flexibility of being able to schedule appointments at mutually agreed upon times, without worrying about access to a physical space at that time. Over the past three years, therapists have gotten really good at facilitating meaningful connections and presence with clients online, and have adapted treatment modalities such as EMDR, hypnotherapy, and somatic approaches to work effectively online. Whether we are seeing you in our offices or on a screen, therapists remain ready to provide effective, compassionate care to folks looking for our services. Reach out for support.

A free consultation for Online therapy in Maryland

Guidelines and best practices are always evolving and changing but hopefully this gives you some more information about changes coming with the end of the Public Health Emergency. If you would like to learn more about online therapy in Maryland and working with me, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation and would be happy to hear about what’s going on with you. Call or contact me for a consultation time.