Telehealth and telemedicine offer so many benefits you should take advantage of. But just like how you might take whey protein, telemedicine should be a supplement and not a replacement for your health needs.
The one thing we should clear up right off the bat is that telehealth and telemedicine are not exactly the same. Telehealth options tend to be more public-facing and include things like mental health or education tools. Telemedicine is more along the lines of getting official medical care through an app or software interface. Telemedicine can however, be considered a part of telehealth, just like how a square is a rectangle but not always the other way around. However, telemedicine and telehealth aren’t replacements for in-person advice: like I alluded to earlier, you don’t want your protein powder to replace your whole nutrition plan. For the purposes of this episode, I’m going to focus on telemedicine, the pros, the cons, and how you can use these tools correctly. You shouldn’t use a power drill without knowing its limits.
The fact that you can get medical help from your home or during your travels is pretty awesome regardless. Even though telemedicine was already growing before the covid pandemic began, the geographic barriers to getting care just went poof. Having this access is also great for the elderly, patients who can’t move very well, and for busy professionals working from home. Now you might ask, oh Rushi this is nice and whatnot, but how do I actually get the virtual help? Whether you download apps like Teladoc or use a health system’s proprietary software, there are usually three kinds of telemedicine visits. The easiest one to grasp is what some may call a synchronous or live consult. This is just what happens when you talk with a doctor in real time, probably over video. Any visit of this nature works best for when you can’t make it to a clinic in-person but need an official medical opinion quickly. The next visit type is called asynchronous or store-and-forward. This involves you sending pictures or necessary medical history to someone who gets back to you with advice. In my line of work this is what happens when patients get worried about their moles and send pictures to get a handful of spots checked by the doctor. The last option is remote monitoring, which is when you have a provider check important stats like your blood pressure or glucose over time and make changes as needed.
No matter what type of visit you prefer, the take-home message is that you should let telemedicine be your swiss army knife to get started on your medical needs in a timely manner. Some apps like Teladoc or MD Live can get you access to a professional in under 24 hours. Getting an opinion that fast is wonderful, but you should draw the line for what needs to be done in-person. However, this doesn’t have to be black and white. Let’s say you have a rash or some kind of break out. You open whatever telemedicine app is on your phone and you speak to a general doctor that same day. You might then get referred to a specialist like a dermatologist for in-person or virtual help to better fix your issue.
Specialties like dermatology, radiology, family medicine, and cardiology mesh with telemedicine nicely compared to other sectors. We’re not yet at the point where your surgeon could do many clean robot-assisted procedures from halfway across the world, but we’re getting there. I’m going to link a longer article by the company eVisit that summarizes a lot of the telemedicine basics and screenshot a separate graphic that shows the best and worst uses of virtual care. I’d argue that telemedicine is at its peak when patients get continuity of care over a long period to ease lifestyle and chronic issues.
Not everything goes to plan. I want to be fair in talking about the less effective side of virtual care. For one thing, not everyone is tech savvy, even in 2022. Both providers and patients might have problems with internet connectivity or may not know how to switch the camera on a phone. You don’t need to a tech power user to fix this issue, but for virtual care you should use the device you find most intuitive whether it be your phone, computer, or tablet. Another issue is that we can lean hard on telemedicine or telehealth for replacing all in-person care, which can be dangerous because some issues might only be found during actual physical exams. Also, heaven forbid that someone would use a telemedicine app as a replacement for an emergency that should be taken care of with 911. As I’ve talked about in previous episodes, there are steps worth taking for exploring your options with in-person doctors. You can definitely try a combo where you see the primary doctor once a year and then seek assistance via telemedicine as needed throughout the year. Another thing to consider is that HIPAA and other privacy rules that govern how patients and doctors communicate online about health needs could also change on a dime. To address this concern, you can ask your provider or insurance company if the primary telemedicine platform being used encrypts your data and is HIPAA-secure. Due to the pandemic, there are exceptions in place but it never hurts to ask if the software of choice makes sense with a security standard. And last but not least, pricing can also be an issue. Since the onset of covid, generally speaking, insurance plans are willing to foot the bill for a remote visit, but platforms can still charge you a convenience fee per consult or providers might end up having you get services or advice that would be considered out-of-network. For those of us who ordered a lot of food from DoorDash or UberEats, the hidden and subtle fees on top of the main course add up fast. This why you should review pricing or fee schedules published on telemedicine platform websites or call the number on the back of your insurance card to get an idea of your virtual care benefits.
Even with all of telemedicine’s pros and cons, the long story short is to use the tools correctly without letting the tools use us. Although telemedicine costs and coverage might be murky at best, there are great tools you can use to handle your medical expenses, whether they be virtual or in person—the HSA and FSA! In the upcoming podcast, we’ll talk about the heath and financial benefits of those accounts. Subscribe and stay tuned to Friendly Neighborhood Patient to get informed about healthcare. I’ll catch you at the next episode.
