Telehealth Services

I offer telehealth services for just about all of the services that can be provided in office.  I am limited by my license from the State of MN Board of Nursing to serving those individuals within the border of MN itself, I cannot cross over into any other states to provide care at all.  Hopefully this will change someday but this is the current state of licensure for Nurse Practitioners.  

There are some laws that may impact ability to provide telehealth services and the range of restrictions that were lifted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  So far, Behavioral Health is still being exempted from the renewed restrictions that are again in place as of October 1, 2025.  That is great news so far as so many are now dependent on telehealth to meet their mental health care needs.  I continue to watch updates regarding this situation but the last I read on CMS Telehealth website was that all Behavioral Health Services that can be provided by telehealth are still exempt from the renewed restrictions.  

I do require that initial appointments (patients that I have never seen or have not seen in the past 2 or more years) must be completed in person.  This is so that we can get to know each other in person before heading into a telehealth appointment framework.  There are also some laws that are in flux related to prescribing controlled substances via telehealth that were relaxed with the pandemic but are now possibly going to tighten up.  I MUST see someone on controlled substances in person at least once per year, and depending on other diagnoses sometimes more often than that.  

Currently there is no additional fee for appointments that are held via telehealth.  That could change someday as the cost of providing the technology to offer secure and private telehealth services is rising constantly but that is something that I will avoid as long as I possibly can and would follow all regulations regarding assessment of fees for telehealth services.  

I am using a secure, HIPAA compliant Telehealth platform called Updox.  It is quite easy to use and easy for me to quickly flip an appointment to a telehealth if needed by simply sending a link to the patient by text or by email.  If you were a patient with me at Mankato Mental Health Associates this is the same platform as was used then.