WA State Telehealth

[mtnmed]

Hey All,

Long time lurker, first time poster.  

I work in EM in Washington State, and am wanting to start my own cash pay Telehealth practice (travel medicine with an emphasis on wilderness medicine).

I have made calls to the state and nobody seems to know the answer, so I'll ask them here!

 

1.  I am going to form a PLLC.  Do I need to have a physician partner?  Can I be 100% owner?  I have an SP lined up, but do they need to be a partner in Washington State?  I know other states don't allow PA's to own 100%.

2.  Red tape:  I wont be billing insurance, but is there any other red tape regarding getting licensed and approved to do this through the state?  My vision is ... make the PLLC (have done this many times before), license the business in the state, get insurance and all that, make SP agreement, and get going.  

 

What am I missing?  Anyone have experience with this, specifically not having a physical practice?

 

Thanks!

[rev ronin]

1. No.  You can own everything.

2. You already have your PA license, so you should be good to go with the SP agreement.

As far as not having a physical location, I can't speak to that.  I have a $400/month incubation suite, and having a physical practice location, as well as a PO box, seems to be working well for me, even though I didn't see clients out of the space for a couple of months while I was working elsewhere and getting my paperwork all in a row.

[jmj11]

Rev, I'm just curious, one of the hurdles when I owned a Washington state medical practice, is that while it was in a beautiful building on the water, it did not have USPS delivery and I had to get a PO box in town. THEN, virtually all of my insurance companies refused to pay for services because in their 100-page plus "rules of payment" they said they could not make a payment to any practice without a physical mailing address. Did this change? My practice closed 5 years ago and the PO thing came up about 8-9 years ago.

Edited January 17, 2022 by jmj11
error

[rev ronin]

On 1/16/2022 at 7:19 PM, jmj11 said:

Rev, I'm just curious, one of the hurdles when I owned a Washington state medical practice, is that while it was in a beautiful building on the water, it did not have USPS delivery and I had to get a PO box in town. THEN, virtually all of my insurance companies refused to pay for services because in their 100-page plus "rules of payment" they said they could not make a payment to any practice without a physical mailing address. Did this change? My practice closed 5 years ago and the PO thing came up about 8-9 years ago.

I only take Washington L&I, which doesn't have that rule, so I can't comment on commercial insurers.  As much as I try to direct everything to the PO Box, I get the occasional shipment or postcard from Google at my physical address, which are simply left in front of my door (good thing I'm not ordering controlled substances!) or slid under it.

[PACFM8772]

hey mtnmed, I am currently in the early stages of opening up my own cash pay Telehealth practice as well in Washington and had those exact questions as I do not plan to have a physical location as well. I am planning to open a PO Box for the company as the main mailing address but to register the PLLC in WA you do need a physical address so far that I found according to (RCW 23.95.105 (27)) but I hesitate to use my home address so still looking into this.

[rev ronin]

On 1/30/2022 at 4:17 PM, PACFM8772 said:

hey mtnmed, I am currently in the early stages of opening up my own cash pay Telehealth practice as well in Washington and had those exact questions as I do not plan to have a physical location as well. I am planning to open a PO Box for the company as the main mailing address but to register the PLLC in WA you do need a physical address so far that I found according to (RCW 23.95.105 (27)) but I hesitate to use my home address so still looking into this.

Odds are that anyone can look up your taxable property if it's in your name anyways.  I've had some junk mail to my home mailing address, no other hassles so far.