The purpose of this article is to help provide information about in-person appointments at Rula. It covers topics such as who is eligible to offer in-person appointments, how to opt-in through the Rula provider portal, and how to add in-person availability in the Rula provider portal. We are currently offering this service in California.
After piloting a program with Rula therapists in Southern California, we are excited to expand our in-person offering across California and hope to expand to other states in the future as well. Features are not currently live yet, however will be coming soon!
If you are not located in California and are interested in seeing clients in person, please fill out this interest form, and we'll notify you when it's available in your state.
Who is eligible to see clients in person?
In order to see clients in person, a provider must meet the following criteria:
- Have an existing office with an address in California
- Must be credentialed with Kaiser and/or Anthem
You can read more details about office requirements in our In-Person Session Checklist.
How can I start seeing clients in person?
Please follow these steps:
- Log into the Rula provider portal.
- Click on the Practice tab, located on the menu on the left side of the page.
- Click Practice details.
- Click Edit to the right of My practice location.
- Telehealth will automatically be selected. Click the checkbox next to In-Person.
- Add the address to your office.
- Click Save.
Note: If you do not add an address, you will receive an error message when you click the Save button. You must add an address to save your selection for in-person appointments.
How do I add in-person availability in the provider portal?
To add in-person availability, follow these steps:
- Log into the Rula provider portal.
- Stay on the Schedule tab.
- Click the Availability button in the top right-hand corner.
- The Availability editor will open a pop-up box.
As a reminder:
- Buttons that are white represent days of the week where you have not yet indicated your availability.
- Light purple buttons represent days where you have already indicated you would like to see new clients.
- Important Note: Existing appointments and calendar blocks will override new client availability.
- To add client availability, click on the day of the week buttons to select the days you are interested in seeing new clients on a recurring weekly basis.
- Once you click on a white button, it will turn light purple.
- Next, select the time frames for each day that you are available to see new clients.
- Here, you can add a continuous length of time, for example from 9 am to 3 pm, or individual time slots, for example, from 9 am to 10 am.
- You can adjust your availability in 30 minute increments.
- Next, select the location for each day that you are available to see new clients.
- Here, you will choose one of the follow: Telehealth, In-person, or Telehealth and In-person.
- When you are satisfied with your selections, click Save.
- This sometimes takes a second as the portal is updating all availability into the future.
To learn more about new client availability best practices and set up, check out Adding availability for new clients in the Rula provider portal.
For Pilot Providers
Providers who participated in the pilot program for offering in-person appointments will need to take the following two actions to make sure your provider profile and calendar are as accurate as possible:
- Review your availability: Log into your Rula provider portal and confirm that your availability for telehealth and in-person appointments has been updated accurately.
- Review your upcoming appointments: Take some time to review your existing follow-up appointments. If you find any that are not showing as in-person when they should be, you will need to cancel and create a new appointment with the correct location selected.
Additional Resources
- Editing your availability for new clients in the Rula provider portal - Details the steps to take in order to edit existing availability for new clients in the Rula provider portal.
- Managing your practice settings in the provider portal - Details important information on the Practice tab in the Rula provider portal.
- How to grow and sustain your practice - Details different ways providers can attract clients to their practice in order to build and maintain and ideal caseload.