Lolita Guerrero*, a 68-year-old retiree from California, was advised to go to the doctor at least once every 3-6 months for her congestive heart failure. She had been regularly seeing her physician for two years, but the COVID-19 outbreak made consultations difficult and risky. Her cardiologist had to make adjustments.
Recently, she was emailed a questionnaire about her symptoms. In the comfort of her home, she answered essential questions related to her plan of care. She submitted her responses, and that was the end of the initial assessment. Two days after, she had a video chat with her doctor, who evaluated her condition as if they were in the same room.
*name changed to protect patient identity
Just like Lolita, the majority of patients in the US are now relying on telehealth providers for health maintenance. Vulnerable groups are now turning to telehealth and virtual check-ups for routine physical assessments and continuous monitoring.
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A Growing Trend
Of Telemedicine, Online Doctors, and Virtual Check-ups: An Overview
How to Choose a Telehealth Provider
How to Choose a (Legitimate) Doctor Online
A Growing Trend
In the year 2015 alone, some 20 million Americans have been able to receive some form of care from telemedicine, with virtual clinics open for those who live far away from the nearest healthcare facility. Today that is a different story – because of the pandemic, the telehealth industry is projected to reach more than 1 billion by the end of the year.
With the boom of telehealth and e-consultations, everybody is given a chance to make better health decisions without compromising their time, efforts, and even safety. You either log on to the website or download apps and harness the power of video calling and file sharing, which could help them communicate effectively with qualified health care providers.
With the COVID-19 situation sweeping across the globe, everyone is advised to limit their movement and stay indoors. Despite the crisis, this is an excellent opportunity for the telemedicine industry because the said infrastructure and business plans are in high demand. Presently, they are now tested to their full capabilities.
A growing medical consultation trend has patients comfortably sitting in their homes, logging in to a reputable telehealth site, and entering their complaints and personal details to be promptly and adequately assessed by an actual doctor. Sounds neat, right? For patients in areas with limited access to quality medical care, virtual doctors are a godsend!
Of Telemedicine, Online Doctors, and Virtual Check-ups: An Overview
Delving further into the topic of telemedicine may induce huge bouts of boredom, but let’s just stick to the critical facts – with the advent of telecommunications, a vast market for consultations and health counseling became a real possibility.
By sending and receiving information at a distance, pioneers were able to create a defined system to reach people from afar. This was initially done with remote patients from the countryside in mind since they didn’t have access to hospitals and proper healthcare, it was a viable resource that aimed at addressing minor ailments and non-emergency health concerns.
Today, this industry is growing every year, with different companies offering medical consultations over the internet, done by board-certified doctors in different specializations. With the use of a partner app or web-based platform, you are allowed instant messaging and video chat features.
With virtual check-ups, patients can communicate with their health care providers in real-time. Likewise, their doctors can interact with their patients and exercise their clinical eye, which can only be done if they could see each other.
How to Choose a Telehealth Provider
Seeking virtual consultations and electronic prescriptions can be a hard-to-swallow concept at first, especially if you’ve never done it before. But with every first time comes a slight learning curve, and together with it, a chance to make your life a bit easier—especially during the quarantine season.
As we all know, the internet is a smorgasbord of websites and services, and it can be hard to filter out what we need from a vast ocean of resources. Nonetheless, there are essential points to consider when looking for health services online. Because we must not take chances with our health, it is always important to be careful and calculating in choosing one’s telehealth provider.
Today, we will be giving you tips on how to choose the best telehealth provider, with legitimate services and one that could address your present health needs. Scroll on to find out more!
First, prioritize your needs and set your expectations as needed.
This could mean listing or making a mental note of all your health concerns, prioritizing and grouping them according to urgency, and exploring your options. It’s a smart way to filter out possible telehealth providers who don’t have a specific service that you are looking for.
Also, this may be a great time to set your expectations! Most telehealth providers cannot treat emergency cases, and most of them focus on non-emergency medical conditions, or at most, urgent care conditions with treatment that can be delayed for a few hours to a couple of days.
According to the list, proceed with research.
Sidebar – it’s better to come prepared when looking for a telehealth provider. Even when you don’t need it just yet, you may want to check out telehealth providers who can serve your area. Know that there are telehealth companies with doctors who are board-certified in individual states, but cannot practice outside of them. It’s better to do your research first and settle this beforehand.
Perhaps you can group them according to need/health concern so that it would be easy for you to access them when you need to. This may include the following:
- Prescription-filling services
- Requesting lab test and diagnostic imaging services
- Urgent care services, with shorter wait times
- Virtual consultations where you can talk to a doctor in real-time
- Chat services for any non-emergency health concern
- Online therapy and counseling services
- Health promotion and disease prevention initiatives, including counseling services
Take note of the price points per service and make comparisons.
While it’s better to stick to the budget, you must not be too stingy when it comes to your health. There may be offers that seem like a steal in the beginning, but you may not get the best kind of service (ergo, it’s money down the drain).
If you want to test the waters first, most telehealth companies have options that charge per-visit rather than weekly or monthly rates. That would also allow you to try out different providers first and pick out the one you want at the end.
Some companies even offer telehealth services together with their existing health plans, which you can make use of. If you’re looking for a family plan, some providers offer discounts.
If you currently have a preexisting condition and need to have yourself monitored frequently, consider comprehensive membership plans which offer a lower monthly or yearly rate with unlimited access to their messaging portals. You get value for your money and peace of mind.
Ask: Does my insurance cover telehealth?
Additionally, some services can be covered by health insurance with a minimal co-pay fee, but you must check with your health insurance provider for more details. If your health plan offers a tie-up with a telehealth plan, you can talk about adjusted rates and possibly, minimal to no co-pay.
If you don’t have insurance, some platforms specifically cater to this group, offering affordable out-of-pocket rates with quality services.
Make sure that the telehealth platform is HIPAA-compliant.
Because the healthcare industry deals with sensitive electronic records at all times, consider their privacy and security measures in place. Your telehealth provider and platform of choice must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA-compliant providers in the United States employ security measures to combat data theft and healthcare fraud. They also utilize secure data encryption technology to prevent database intrusion attempts.
If you would like to know if a particular telehealth platform is HIPAA-compliant, you can always check with their website (they usually have specific sections and badges for this).
Reach out and get in touch with customer service.
If you’ve got your heart set on a specific telehealth provider, ask them what you need to know and communicate your concerns. The only way to remove your doubt is to be well-informed of the specific services they offer. Before you commit to anything, just ask!
How to Choose a (Legitimate) Doctor Online
So, now that you’ve considered a few telehealth providers that could help you with your health concerns, we’re going to move to the next part of the search: choosing a suitable online doctor (with a few more considerations, of course).
When choosing a doctor for a virtual consultation, here are a few crucial tips that you should take note of:
Don’t take background checks for granted.
For doctors to practice their profession, they require board certifications that are issued and regulated by the government. There are also subspecialties which require them to take in more hours of study and related learning exposure in the field they’re focusing on, which is another vital part of their overall certification.
A quick Google check may suffice in most cases, especially if the doctor is well-known in a particular field. Otherwise, you can log-in to CertificationMatters.org, a not-for-profit organization that helps patients validate the certification of their doctors. You just need to type in a few details, such as the doctor’s name and his/her address.
Authorities in medical specialization, such as the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS), can help you validate if your physician is indeed a medical specialist. If this doesn’t apply, you can also check with the specific board that he/she is stated to be under, and check their database.
Check your local health policy.
As mentioned, you must always consider local policies and legislation related to telehealth, as there is a chance that the medical provider you’re consulting cannot issue a valid prescription that would be honored by pharmacies in your area. The validity of board certifications may vary in-between states, so keep this in mind when choosing a doctor for consultation.
Use alternative medicine providers with caution.
You will find alternative therapies in modern medicine, but most practices are not state-regulated, meaning practitioners may lack essential credentials. There have been multiple cases of fraud related to this field, including the sale of non-FDA approved health supplements and treatments backed by pseudoscientific literature.
If something sounds shady or if pseudoscientific jargon comes into play (terms such as “antioxidant therapy,” “repairing energy fields,” or “restoring the body’s natural balance”), it’s better to reconsider.
For your safety, try to find actual medical practitioners backed with credentials and years of experience.
Reviews by previous clients are valuable, too
Just like the Yelp reviews we usually scroll through before eating out, reviews left by patients previously handled by doctors you’re considering are invaluable resources that you shouldn’t take for granted. Especially when you don’t have a background in medicine, these reviews from resources such as Google Reviews and WebMD offer an insight on the kind of services that they offer, as well as the way they treat their patients. You need a doctor you can trust and rely on!
Leave them an email – just ask!
Asking saves you tons of guesswork – and doctors are well-versed on this aspect of their job. If you have any questions about their specialties, or about how they can diagnose and treat you online, you always have the right to ask. There are platforms for this, and telehealth providers usually have forums and specialized portals for this purpose.
And there you have it! We hope that this detailed list could help you understand the concepts of telehealth and online consultations a bit more, or at least spark an interest in trying this modality very soon. We are now facing the future of healthcare, and this is just the beginning!