These days, it’s more important than ever for seniors and others to have easy access to healthcare. During our current pandemic and beyond, telemedicine offers a lifeline for people in need of medical assistance.

Telehealth provides a great solution for those times you can’t reach your regular physician or prefer to deal with a doctor virtually due to the pandemic or other health issues. Many insurance plans offer telemedicine virtual calls with on-call doctors within hours.

Ask your current physician if they do telehealth consults. If so, their office can help you arrange one via video, telephone, app, email or online patient portal. The visit will be similar in many ways to a regular in-office visit. You interact on-screen in real time, upload photos, discuss your concerns and receive valuable feedback from your doctor. Your doctor can also write prescriptions and/or arrange in-person tests.

Feelings of isolation affect many of us, especially during the pandemic. Many mental health professionals, as well as physicians, utilize telehealth. Video chatting enables doctors to examine you and mimic an in-office visit. Psychological counselors can observe your visual clues to assist them during your discussions.

One well-known provider of telehealth is Teladoc ® , which works with many Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans. According to their website, they are not providers for Medicare fee for service or Medicaid fee for service, so you’ll need Medicare Part C supplemental coverage. Teladoc provides boardcertified, California-licensed physicians from all over the country.

This past year, in response to COVID-19, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order relaxing certain state privacy and security laws to allow greater use of telehealth. As long as doctors are licensed in California, they can use technology to practice medicine in this state, regardless of where they reside.

Nothing, of course, beats in-person visits and testing. Telemedicine, however, provides care when you need it most. It affords flexibility and privacy, plus that reassuring intangible – peace of mind.

— Lori Berezin
Brand Publishing Writer