Question: I Hear About ‘Telehealth’, But I Don’t Know What That Is. Should I Be Using That?

Answer: Telehealth is the ability to access health related services and communications via phone and the internet. It allows local and long-distance patient and provider contact to provide care, advice, reminders, education, monitoring and so much more.

Prior to COVID, Telehealth was not as common, and many health insurance products didn’t cover this type of appointment. With the COVID pandemic our healthcare system and our society made significant adjustments to how care and services were provided. Telehealth became a way you could have appointments with your providers without leaving your home and exposing everyone to illness.

A telehealth appointment could be over the phone, simply talking with your provider to review your situation, illness or health statis. A telehealth appointment could also be a video conference allowing your provider to see you and you see them.

With a phone appointment, you use a traditional landline phone or a cell phone. With a Telehealth video conference, you will need a higher level of technology. This could be using your cellphone for a video call, your iPad for a video call, zoom or facetime appointment. It would also be your computer or laptop with or without the camera function.

For some appointments a voice only type of communication (phone call) may adequately cover the situation.

Think of a session with a mental health professional or reviewing your medication list with the nurse at your doctor’s office. We have all used these types of phone calls for years to address concerns or issues as they come up.

For some appointments a video conference is more appropriate and more useful. Think of talking with your provider about a rash, or a wound. This allows the provider to see what it is that you are talking about. It also can allow the provider to access of your overall situation.

During COVID when physicians didn’t want as many patients in the office, this allowed for individuals to be ‘seen’ without leaving their homes.

The other nice feature of Telehealth is that you don’t need transportation to get to that appointment. That appointment can happen right in your home, as long as you have the phone and possibly other technology to access that appointment. For some situations this allows an individual to see a provider from another area of the country.

If you live in a rural community, where it is a long distance to get to your provider, this is a useful option as well.

These telehealth visits can sometimes incorporate other technologies and information as well. Have you known someone with a pacemaker, who uses a device in their home to monitor their heart function right from home?

The individual with the pacemaker has a device in the home, which is placed against their pacemaker and then using a phone call, reports the pacemaker functioning to the doctor. This type of telemedicine has been around for a long time.

For those individuals without technology in their homes, there are some alternatives available to you. Many libraries have computers that are placed in private areas or rooms that can be used for telehealth appointments.

To use these facilities, simply reach out to your local library to see if they have this set up available. You also may have access to these technologies through family members who have these types of set ups in their homes.

The next issue with telehealth is how is it covered by your insurance. Original Medicare and all Medicare Advantage plans include telehealth visits in their coverage. This is especially true since the COVID pandemic.

The cost for these visits are sometimes less than the usual copay for a visit with your provider, but usually it is the same cost as the in person visit to your provider. When your insurance is a Medicare Advantage plans, you have copays for an in person visit with your provider is $5 (primary care) or $40 dollars (specialists), those copays would be the same for the telehealth appointment.

When your insurance is Original Medicare the same cost structures would apply, the $226 Part B deductible each year and then an 80%/20% split once the deductible is met. (Medicare paying 80% and you or your secondary insurance paying the 20%.

Telehealth may be something you were using already and just didn’t know the label it fell under. Telehealth may be a new concept to you.

No matter what your situation, Telehealth can help you and your providers meet your medical needs.

Call you provider if you would like to use this type of appointment in the future, and see what they have to offer.

Janell Sluga is a Geriatric Care Manager helping seniors in our community access services and insurance. To reach her, email editorial@post-journal.com.