Telehealth: One Silver Lining of the COVID Pandemic

This has been a year of change. We have had to adapt and learn to live with some unpleasant and difficult impacts on our lives, including social distancing and wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Reducing everyone’s exposure to the virus has forced us to be creative in how we interact with one another.

The traditional visit to your healthcare provider has also undergone a radical transformation. Telehealth – once used in limited capacity – is now being rapidly developed and becoming a more widely employed method of healthcare delivery in our society.

Telehealth involves the delivery of healthcare through telecommunication systems such as your phone or computer. With the onset of the pandemic, insurance companies expanded coverage of many kinds of visits to allow for delivery of healthcare without face-to-face exposure. Prior to the pandemic, only video visits were accepted as telehealth, but now many insurance plans are covering telephone visits as well. You should check with your insurance to confirm coverage prior to a visit. In the pre-COVID era, few healthcare providers offered telehealth visits; whereas now, many do.

A telehealth visit is typically scheduled in the same manner that an in-person visit would be scheduled. There are several different platforms that may be implemented for the actual visit. After making the appointment, the patient might receive an email with a link that would allow access to a video chat system. Telehealth may also be done through face-time connections of a phone or through other phone-based applications that allow video communication. The Telehealth system offered by your provider should be compliant with HIPAA laws that ensure privacy and security. You should feel confident and comfortable that your health information is as protected and secure as if you were in the office having a face-to-face conversation.

There are other advantages of telehealth besides infection risk reduction. Some patients have challenges with transportation and mobility. Telehealth allows people to have their appointments in the comfort and convenience of their own home. For others, traditional appointments can result in costly loss of income from missed work. Telehealth allows a patient to take a small break from work and have a quick visit in a private office or even their vehicle which eliminates the time required to travel and wait in the office setting.

Although most people adapt well to the telehealth format, some have difficulty navigating the technology necessary to successfully connect for the visit. Typically, with some over the phone coaching, patients are able to make the successful “clicks” to connect. The quality of the video and audio is dependent on bandwidth and internet connections. Depending on such things as the computer, phone, and modem speed, connections can be pixelated or interrupted by freezing images or lost connections. This can be frustrating, but most of the time, the technology does work.

Some types of visits that do not work as well with telehealth – those requiring an extensive physical exam, for example. While it is acceptable to conduct a limited physical exam via telehealth, a more thorough in-person follow up exam will likely be necessary. Of course, a traditional office visit is required for any type of procedure. Because of this, most medical practices are now a mix of telehealth and traditional in-person visits. In order to keep patients safe, even traditional visits have changed as safety measures have been implemented to reduce risk of virus transmission. But in terms of Coronovirus transmission risk reduction, there is no safer visit than a telehealth visit.

Paul Forman, M.D., is board-certified in Family Medicine. Dr. Forman works at Solstice Family Care in Wasilla. Solstice is located at 950 E. Bogard Rd., Suite 233. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Forman, call Solstice at 352-1300, or visit SolsticeFamilyCare.com and use the online scheduling tool. Dr. Forman also offers telehealth/virtual visits.