COVID-19 Resources

The current COVID-19 pandemic presents social workers with a number of challenges to address in ensuring their own health and safety, continuity of care for clients, and the well-being of the community at-large. As this situation continues to rapidly evolve, NASW-RI will continue to monitor developments and work to protect social workers and the clients and communities we serve.

Reopening & Telehealth:

• COVID-19: Legal Considerations for Resuming In-Person Services
• Per the RI Department of Health website (accessed 10/22/20), health insurers must cover telemedicine for primary care, specialty care, and mental and behavioral health care conducted over the phone or by videoconference. Reimbursement rates for providers must be the same as reimbursement rates for in-office visits. This Executive Order has been extended to November 2, 2020. 
• Reopening RI information and guidelines: reopeningri.com
• Telemental Health Informed Consent Template: https://files.constantcontact.com/705ce2b0301/bf0fc8df-dcac-4cb8-9a01-fb7e4d509172.pdf
• COVID-19 In-person Informed Consent Template: https://naswassurance.org/pdf/inperson-informed-consent.pdf
• Read a Social Worker's perspective on the importance of teletherapy, by Henri Flikier LICSW; ACSW. 

Licensing & Continuing Education:

during the ri board of social work examiners meeting on november 17, 2020, the board unanimous voted to keep the regulations as they are, which required that 22 of the 30 required ce hours be "contact hours"...hours acquired through attendance or participation at programs that provide direct interaction between faculty and participants and may include lectures, symposia, live teleconferences or workshops.  for up-to-date information, please go to the ri department of health website: health.ri.gov/covid.

• licensing: https://health.ri.gov/licenses/detail.php?id=245
• continuing education requirements: health.ri.gov/about/customer-services-updates.php#cplb

practice alerts:

• home health: nasw advocacy for telehealth during the covid-19 pandemic and clarifications regarding the patient-driven groupings model (august 2020)
• covid-19: practice guidelines for reopening social work practices (may 2020)
• covid-19 resources for school social workers (may 2020)
• medicare revises telehealth place of service and modifier codes during covid-19 (april 2020)

nasw is here for you! see additional covid-19 resources here.