NOTE: Effective March 23, 2020. Many health care companies are continuing to allow us to file for insurance reimbursement for telecounseling following the COVID-19 pandemic. We will let you know what, if anything, your insurance is authorizing during this time. We have several formats that we can use that will comply with the federal emergency guidelines for telecounseling.

Telecounseling is a great alternative to face-to-face counseling when it is not possible to make a regular in-office appointment. I treat skype sessions the same way I do face-to-face sessions. Examples of some recent virtual sessions have been premarital counseling sessions where one person is out of state; continued counseling when a move/transfer has occurred; when travel is necessary for a job, and counseling continues weekly.

Zoom/FaceTime Counseling Tips

Make your appointment just as you would or an office visit by calling 540-479-1661 or emailing Journey to Hope.

The following tips may be useful to make your sessions more effective:

• Create a private space for yourself free of distractions and other people's presence as best you can during the session time.

• Have a paper and pencil ready, for eventual note taking.

• If you have phones, please turn them off or set it in silent mode.

How Zoom Enables HIPAA Compliance

In the course of providing services to healthcare customers, the Zoom Platform and Zoom Phone enable HIPAA compliance to covered entities. In provisioning and operating the Zoom HIPAA Services, Zoom complies with the provisions of the HIPAA Security Rule that are required and applicable to it in its capacity as a business associate.

Zoom is responsible for enforcing the administrative, technical and physical safeguards to prevent any unauthorized access to or disclosure of protected health information (PHI) in the Zoom environment.

The following table demonstrates how Zoom supports HIPAA compliance based on the HIPAA Security Rule published in the Federal Register.