What To Do?
Our leaders in California including the County of Sacramento, State of California, OES (Office of Emergency Services) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have offered Prudent advice that should be followed to slow the spread of the virus, maintain order and help the elderly and vulnerable populations.
Current information as of 3/20/2020 Suggests the following guidelines.
Stay at home if possible
Reduce driving and transportation to essential activities: Core groceries, outdoor exercise, medical appointments, essential work and so forth.
Sacramento County updates and actual order is in this article.
What Lions Heart Counseling is Doing?
Mental Health services have been identified as essential activities. As a result many of our therapists continue to provide in person mental health counseling for existing clients. Some clients and therapists are members of vulnerable populations and are following the advice of the county to shelter in place. We completely support this and also want to continue to serve these clients and support our staff in meaningful work during this Pandemic emergency. As a result we are implementing a HIPPA compliant web meeting platform through Theranest and offering that to all private pay clients. In order for us to provide this service to insurance pay clients rules vary a bit from insurance to insurance.
In Person Counseling
We remain open for healthy clients following government protocols.
Be Healthy with no signs of coughing, flu, or cold symptoms.
No recent contact with anyone known to have signs of coughing, flu, or cold symptoms. Please follow these guidelines as if our staff gets sick they won’t be able to help you other clients.
Corona Virus Fear and How Counseling Can Help
Corona Virus Fear and How Counseling Can Help
This article by Drake Delaplane gives sound insight on how to handle anxiety and be safe during this Pandemic and uncertain time.
Medicare Virtual Sessions
If you are an existing Medicare client with Lions Heart and request Virtual sessions we can provide counseling for you if you have a diagnosis meeting medical necessity. Further, we have been advised on how to bill for these sessions by industry experts. However, know that the government can be slow to move and make things complex at times. For system requirements and information on virtual sessions click here.
Optum and United Health Care Insurance clients
Due to the crisis we will be accepting new clients with this insurance again in our offices. When we have worked thru the specific requirements to be reimbursed for Telemedicine with this insurance company we will provide telemedicine or virtual sessions to these clients as well. We are hoping this can be accomplished within a week. Please note more than likely this will apply to Commercial clients and not self-insured or Sutter Employees as the protocols for billing are vastly more complex and support is lacking at this time.
Magellan: Western Health Insurance and Kaiser clients.
Due to the crisis we will be accepting new clients with this insurance again in our offices. When we have worked thru the specific requirements to be reimbursed for Telemedicine with this insurance company we will provide telemedicine or virtual sessions to these clients as well. We are hoping this can be accomplished within a week. Please note more than likely this will apply to Commercial clients and not self-insured as the protocols for billing are vastly more complex and support is lacking at this time.
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Unfortunately this insurance company has opted to utilize only one specific platform for telemedicine and has typically generated the most claw backs. As a result, being a small company and in uncertain economic times, we can not honor this insurance at this time.