Distance Therapy

David: Hi, this is David Kats and Cheri Egts with Therapist Consultants.

We have a tip for you. During this coronavirus time, one of the things you probably and certainly want to start doing is start doing some distance teletherapy. Now, I should tell you that you can do therapy by telephone now. It's accepted, and it's HIPAA-compliant, but by far the most pleasant way to do therapy via telephone or video is by doing video therapy. There are several software companies that are now giving you the opportunity to do your therapy by video. Cheri is the expert on this. What are some of the video companies that are allowing you to do therapy by video?

Cheri: Well, one of them is Zoom, and zoom.us actually offers a free sign up. If you sign up right now, you could get an account for free.

David: That is Z-O-O-M.us.

Cheri: Yes.

David: Okay.

Cheri: Now, they do have one that's HIPAA-compliant that you can pay for, but right now, we're just suggesting to get started, get on Zoom, get started. You can actually set an appointment today and use it. While you're waiting to find how to use zoom, then go to your EHR. A lot of the EHRs, Therapy Appointment. It has one that they use-

David: Simple-

Cheri: -Practice.

David: SimplePractice has one that-- In other words, these are your software that you do your billing on. If you pay them a few more dollars each month, you can do your tele-video with them, and it's HIPAA-compliant. If you have a good software like Therapy Appointment, Therapy Note, SimplePractice, ones like that, see if they have a video conferencing platform because that'd be an easy and quick one to use.

Cheri: There's also a company called Regroup, R-E-G-R-O-U-P. They supposedly sit on Zoom, but they have a business associates agreement, and you can use that and pay for that. It's fairly affordable. We do know client that is using that. We have someone using the HIPAA-compliant, VSee. That's V-S--

David: As in victor, S-E-E. Okay, like video see, VSee.

Cheri: Yes, that's it.

David: Then there's one called thera-LINK, and thera-LINK is a fairly popular one. They have this set up specifically for therapists as it sounds. There is a waiting room, a virtual waiting room, they sit-in before there and you can click the money over there and click the money before you have the conference and things like that. I think that's pretty much a wrap up. Try a new one of those.

You do at zoom.us you can start with right now. You can get a HIPAA-compliant version of that, but they've relaxed the rules a little bit so you can use zoom.us right now. Then there's the all the practice management programs, like Therapy Notes, Therapy Appointment, and SimplePractice. Then there's a standalone you might say, like VSee and Regroup and thera-LINK. Those are some ideas but certainly, think about now getting everybody on your video platform for doing your counseling.

This is David Kats and Cheri Egts. Thanks for listening.