Breitbart
Clint Phillips, the CEO of telehealth company Medici, told Breitbart News Saturday that President Donald Trump’s telehealth reform has given 100 million Americans access to virtual care.
The Trump administration expanded Medicare telehealth coverage that will enable beneficiaries to receive a broader range of healthcare services from their doctors. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a waiver that temporarily pays clinicians to provide telehealth services for beneficiaries. Medicaid recipients could receive access to the plan if a state government would approve the reform. More
Don’t know if this falls into the category of telehealthcare or not, but last week, my weekly in person appt with the nurse practitioner during chemo off weeks was cancelled as was my blood test. She phoned me instead and read me the insurance script. So I am assuming Medicare and my supplemental is picking up the tab for a 5 minute phone call.
Tomorrow she will FaceTime me for same since she learned I have the capable equipment. The medicare and insurance receipts will be interesting to see, unless costs are all inclusive for the cancer center and not itemized.
I’m scheduled for a tele-visit with my Lyme disease specialist on Tuesday. Except for the typical weight, temp, and BP data collection I suspect it will go about the same as my usual monthly visit.
I am also interested on how she will handle providing my visit summary and billing.
Phone call = Office visit.
That’s what my wife was told by gut doctor.
PJ
My Chemo nurses are dropping like flies. They’re calling back retired nurses now.
@ Brad
“dropping like flies”
Hopefully they’re just getting sick.
I’m sure DJT won’t get any credit for this. The press will likely tie themselves in knots to somehow give credit to Obozo.
Two years from now we are going to look back at the innovations across the board – telecommuting, health care, so many other things – and recognize that although the technologies were already available it was the coronavirus situation that really pushed us to adopt them. While we continue to do all we can to minimize the cost – human and economic – we are also developing systems that are more efficient and clearing out the unwieldy ones.
Bad Brad, I’m so happy you are so full of P&V. You should be safe from catching anything from them. 🙂
I will stoke up on more so I am also immune to the CCP/Peelousy scourge. My motto shall be drink more vinegar, pee less between poison drips.
“Two years from now we are going to look back at the innovations across the board – ”
Unfortunately this will also involve a lot more Government intrusion into our health care system
LCD, ahh, the bright lining. You are correct though.
Right now locally, the biggest problem for some students is that there are no danged textbooks for parents to look at to help their kids. And this is in a top rated school district that churns out very high SAT scores.
@PJ and Bad Brad – I pray for God’s healing and protection for you both, in Jesus name.
Praying for protection and healing for Brad and PJ, chemo is NEVER great, but torching your immune system during a pandemic requires EXTRA protection from the Lord…
And don’t forget Claudia and Eugenia in your prayers, either, they are still recovering, too…
God bless you all,
SNS
I get my Tele-Health Service right here on iOTWR!
izlamo delenda est …
As someone who, fortunately, has not had to go to the doctor for anything on a regular basis, only when there is the rare blood-all-over, or broken bones, or infection of some sort that needs to be identified with a lab test and then treated with the correct antibiotic…
I have no idea how this works.
From everything I’ve read and heard (including from doctors) about the miseries and security and mistake-making risks of electronic record-keeping instead of charts (thank you Obamacare) I remain suspicious about the benefits of this stuff. Sounds like a financial windfall for the medical and tech industries, i.e. about as terrific as how a person cannot get a living human being on the phone anymore to ask the simplest question — whether it’s the mortgage company or pest control business or phone service provider…
@janitor – maybe I am just damned lucky, but from my own personal experience, my healthcare providers seem more worried about my health than I do. If I called my clinic’s emergency number right now, someone would be seeing me within a few hours or an ambulance would be picking me up within minutes.
But then they’d charge my insurance 1/2 a million $.
@ PJ and Bad_Boy_Brad,
In my mind’s eye I see every cancer cell in your body being hunted down and destroyed. You are strong survivors.
…I’m not crazy about the movement towards “no-touch” medicine, I even dumped a primary because he only wanted to look at me from across the room and never actually do an exam, and this was BEFORE COVID. I mean, I’m an ugly dude, but a doctor should have enough training to get past that…
…I’ve seen a lot of that after Obamacare made all the old docs retire, and the new ones dunp everything off to PAs and NPs whenever they can, but this “Telemed” stuff is going to make it absurd.
There’s different things in play here, but one BIG one is that people don’t always have what they THINK they hsve, or are willing to actually TALK about the REAL problem, and the phone will NOT help with this. There’s stuff like “referred pain” where you get a backache when you REALLY have a kidney issue, or a guy doesn’t want to talk about his hernia so it’s “my gut hurts” instead…
…I’m not even CLOSE to a doctor, I’m just a goof who liked flashy lights on his car, but I was able to learn SO much by watching how people moved, what they guarded, what they would silently point at, and things they couldn’t see about themselves, but I could as an interested obsever.
Then too, there’s things you can’t get with “tech” that you DO from observation, ausculation, and palpation, that the machines…DON’T.
A machine can take a pulse, but usually won’t pick up on if it’s got a missed beat in it, or if it’s weak or thready. Not sure how you’re going to hear breath sounds over the phone, and I can tell if I need to listen harder just by watching the WAY you breathe, which a phone can’t do. Also, there’s the “Observer effect” on some things, like respiration, whereby if someone is AWARE something is being measured, they will change it, which you can overcome by deflection (a thing I learned to get accurate respiraions was to take a pulse holding the wrist and,once you have THAT, keep holding like you’re still takng it, BUT lower the arm to the upper chest so you’re REALLY feeling breaths but with the patient unaware that’s what you’re doing so they don’t change it unconciously because it’s making THEM think about it), which the phone won’t do.
Observation can be CRUCIAL with pediatric patients, too. Vital signs are almost useless on children because their vascular systems are so strong that they can keep.a good BP even WITH internal bleeding, until they can’t any more, so they go south ALL AT ONCE. So if you go by BP, the kid is good, good, good, good DEAD.
…looking at a kid, seeing how they ACT, and trying to pick up on if their appearance is slighly gorky, pale, or hectic isn’t that easy over the phone.
Also, some signs are olfactory. A diabetic in DKA has a pretty distinct breath smell. Flatulence can be rude or funny, but also may indicate more serious problems by smell alone. There’s a universe of things that can be missed on a tiny screen showing JUST the part they THINK is the problem…
…I’m not saying some things can’t work that way. I’m just saying it is FAR more likely you will MISS something than if you are in the same room, and can HEAR, SEE, and SMELL the patient to pick up clues about what they may NOT be aware of.
…medicine requires TRAINED contact. If it DIDN’T, then we could just all use WebMD and be done with it…
@SNS -(a little tongue in cheek) – IDK, when I took my dog to the vet for the first time (a rescue), the dog looked at the vet and a ripple ran through his lips, and the vet said from the other side of the room, “he looks fine to me.” And then gave me the flea meds. And my dog is just fine.
^^^ you mean, “Fang-in-cheek” I think, Gladys…
If you think about it, telemedicine is just a natural extension of “urgent care” walk-in clinics.
I remember when walk-in clinics first came on the scene – in 1990 or so, in my town – I was appalled at the thought of not seeing MY doctor for what ailed me. Speaking of what ails me…
“I don’t need no doctor” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gWqrP30YXQ
Now I only see MY doctor once a year – for my annual physical – anything else, which I am grateful is very few and far between, I go to the walk-in clinic. And if possible, I use my company provided telemedicine service.
@ SNS
I’m glad you and others are here, I seem to get so much from everyone’s life experiences.
Gladys, Zonga, SNS…THANK YOU.
SNS, you ain’t ugly, you’re my brother.
🙂
“No touch” would be a blessing.
Seems like every doctor I meet has to shove his (and her) fist up my ass.
Except my respiratory/Pulmonary Doctor (at least so far).
Oh, and the guys who take my blood haven’t demanded that I drop trou.
All pretty weird for a guy with high blood pressure …
izlamo delenda est …