![]() Either way, you will need access to a laptop, tablet or smartphone - though, for a phone conversation, a landline or simple cellphone will suffice. In other cases, your provider may use a publicly available platform such as FaceTime, Skype or Zoom. Large medical offices and health systems usually have their own telemedicine platforms. If you are one of the 13 million Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, you can get telehealth services at little to no cost. You can also contact one of those companies directly for a medical consultation if you don’t have insurance, and pay between $75 and $82 for a regular doctor visit. The appointment may be through your in-network provider or a telehealth company your insurer contracts with, such as Teladoc, Doctor On Demand or MD Live. If you are planning a telehealth appointment, be sure to ask your health plan if it is covered and how much the copay or coinsurance will be. Washington state has one that also will begin Jan. 1, a state law - AB-744 - will make that permanent for commercial plans.įive other states - Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Minnesota and New Mexico - have pay-parity laws already in effect, according to Mei Wa Kwong, executive director of the Center for Connected Health Policy. In California, the Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates health plans covering the vast majority of the state’s insured residents, requires commercial plans and most Medi-Cal managed care plans during the pandemic to pay providers for telehealth at parity with regular appointments and limit cost sharing by patients to no more than what they would pay for in-person visits. State regulators and commercial health plans also loosened their telehealth policies. ![]() The growth of virtual care has been facilitated by Medicare rule changes for the COVID-19 emergency, including one that reimburses doctors for telemedicine at the same rate as in-person care for an expanded list of services. Telemedicine also provides care for people in rural areas who live far from medical facilities. “Even after the pandemic, I’m going to prefer doing the video conferencing over having to go there.” “It’s just like I’m in the room with the doctor, with all of the benefits and none of the disadvantages of having to haul my body over to the facility,” says Wolfrom, who has Type 2 diabetes. He particularly appreciates the video visits. James Wolfrom, a 69-year-old retired postal executive in San Francisco, has had mostly virtual health care appointments since the pandemic started. Joseph Kvedar, president of the American Telemedicine Association and a practicing dermatologist who teaches at Harvard Medical School in Boston.įor patients, the advantages of telemedicine are clear: You typically can get an appointment sooner, in the safety of your own home or workplace, saving time and money on gas and parking - in some cases, even avoiding a loss in wages for missing work. “There are still a few doubting Thomases, but now that we’ve run our practices this way for three months, people have learned that it’s pretty useful,” says Dr. ![]() And for physicians who previously were skeptical of remote care, necessity has been the mother of invention. Studies show patient satisfaction with telehealth is high. But medical professionals and health experts predict that when the pandemic is over, telehealth will still play a much larger role than before. The COVID-fueled surge has tapered off as patients venture back to doctors’ offices. The result was a huge increase in the volume of remote medical and behavioral health visits.ĭoctors, hospitals and mental health providers across the country reported a 50- to 175-fold rise in the number of virtual visits, according to a report released in May by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. doctors limited in-person appointments - and many patients avoided them - for fear of infection. ![]()
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