Social Impacts
Telemedicine is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technology to get the health care patients need right from the comfort of their own home. Telemedicine allows both patients and doctors to meet virtually to begin or continue various types of medical care. Using a phone or other device with internet, telemedicine visits allow health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients at a distance using telecommunications technology. Using telemedicine enables healthcare professionals to reach patients in rural or hard to reach populations. Over the past decade, telemedicine has rapidly evolved and is an increasingly important component in healthcare across the globe.
Features
For doctors, telemedicine also provides various benefits. The decreased wait times lead to improved office efficiency and therefore increases revenue. In addition, appointments from the patient’s home yields fewer missed appointments and cancellations. Private payer reimbursements due to telemedicine also benefit the doctors. For both doctors and patients, telemedicine helps to limit exposure to potentially contagious people.
Features
The use of telemedicine provides benefits to both the patients as well as the doctors and providers. For patients, using telemedicine allows you to talk to a doctor live over the phone or video chat, or you can send and receive chat messages. Also, telemedicine saves valuable time and money because you don’t need to pay for travel and transportation. Furthermore, the reduced waiting time and lessened number of visits to a clinic are some more benefits. Telemedicine allows patients to take visits from their own home, increasing privacy and limiting exposure to potentially contagious patients.
Telemedicine FAQs
Telemedicine is manageable to use and extremely convenient for the user. Because this technology is entirely virtual, patients never have to leave the comfort of their own home or travel strenuous distances for medical assistance. Moreover, all meetings are conducted online, allowing healthcare professionals to reach patients in rural or otherwise hard to reach populations.
For Medicare patients, the national telehealth policy sets many constraints on patient location, services implemented over telemedicine, and facilities at which patients receive these services. However, the Medicare Chronic Care Management Program is a federal policy that sets no such restrictions on practicing telemedicine.
Medicaid reimbursement fluctuates from state to state, resulting in a patchwork of different policies and reimbursement requirements.
Telemedicine is a powerful and swiftly growing element of healthcare delivery in the United States. There are currently about 200 telemedicine networks, with 3,500 service sites in the U.S. In 2011 alone, the Veterans Health Administration fulfilled over 300,000 remote consultations using telemedicine. More than half of all U.S. hospitals now use some form of telemedicine.
Yes. When used under the right conditions, telemedicine is as safe and effective as in-person care. Of course, not every situation is conducive to treatment via video visits, so providers must use good judgment when leveraging this healthcare delivery channel.