Virtual healthcare has been around for decades, expanding significantly with the development of the internet. Though available for years, online medicine only recently moved into the forefront of the industry. As healthcare costs in the United States continued to skyrocket and Covid-19 began to pose a threat throughout the US and the world, online practitioner services suddenly became the new normal for many families in the US and elsewhere.
Online medical providers such as doctors, advanced nurse practitioners, and physician assistants provide patients with many of the same services and treatment options through a virtual visit as they have in a traditional office visit setting. For common medical ailments, virtual visits provide patients with the same level of quality care, from their home's safety and comfort.
Until recently, virtual visits to physicians were typically used when patients lived in a rural area or were unable to travel easily to their physician's office for mobility reasons. However, as 2020 brought forth a pandemic, unlike any in recent memory, virtual medicine, and online physician services finally moved into the forefront of medicine. For many patients and physicians alike, they have become the "new normal" in medicine.
In years past, online medicine and virtual visits were reserved for patients for whom traveling to the physical office was not a possibility; however, the face of virtual medicine, as well as the typical patient, is changing. As online physician services become more commonplace, it may be time to take a closer look at telemedicine and the services that can be offered online.
Telemedicine and online visits can be performed by doctors in various specialties. From family medicine to endocrinology, infectious disease to geriatric medicine, and much more. Online medical practitioners are a fantastic alternative to traditional office visits for many non-emergency services, such as:
With advancements in technology that allow for high-quality video conferencing between physicians and patients, many doctors can perform evaluations plus visual examinations of their patients online, offering the same services as in a traditional doctor's office. In tandem with online tools and apps that can assist with evaluation techniques, patients can partner with physicians to better manage their health.
For many specialties, online services are a natural extension of the services typically provided in a hospital or doctor's office setting. These are the most popular online specialties:
Online medicine continues to evolve as technology continues to change the way we do things as a society. As technological advances continue, many industries, including Healthcare, are finding new ways to streamline services and better serve their customers, or in the case of physicians, their patients.
Online medical practitioners typically offer the following services to patients:
The vast majority of services that are provided in a physician's office setting can also be performed online through a virtual office visit.
With online healthcare and virtual visits becoming more commonplace, healthcare professionals and patients utilize online services' benefits. Here are some of the most significant benefits of online medical services:
Both practitioners and patients cite convenience as one of the biggest benefits of online medicine. With virtual visits, physicians can see patients from anywhere – the office, or their home, or from a hospital setting, if necessary. Weather concerns, office space, and other availability issues are a problem of the past for doctors seeing patients remotely.
From a patient perspective, online healthcare can offer convenient solutions to child care issues, as well as common scheduling issues. Patients, especially when feeling under the weather, can see their physician from the comfort of their own home without commuting to an office and sitting in a waiting room while not feeling well, waiting to be seen.
Another area that both patients and practitioners tout as a huge advantage of virtual healthcare over traditional medicine is with time management.
Virtual medicine is a huge time saver. From an APRN perspective, online visits have dramatically cut down on the number of no-shows and late patients.
As one of the biggest reasons for lost revenue, cutting down on missed appointments has helped increase virtual medicine's popularity for many physicians. Additionally, with virtual visits, the business of seeing patients is streamlined, with physicians able to see a much higher number of patients on a daily basis through virtual services.
For patients, virtual visits cut down on transportation times, lost time at work, as well as time waiting in the office to see their physician. Patients simply sign onto the virtual healthcare network at the time of their visits and wait for a cue that their doctor has arrived. In the meantime, they can continue to be productive at home, work, or elsewhere while waiting.
Especially within the United States, healthcare costs have skyrocketed in recent years, and virtual medicine can help to quell some of the costs associated with healthcare. From a practitioner's perspective, providing more virtual services requires less office space and saves time.
Without the daily expense of maintaining a full office staff, utilities such as electricity, and maintaining a large physician office space, the cost of doing business is drastically reduced.
Ultimately, the decreased cost of doing business is passed on to the patients in the prices set for office visits. While a traditional office visit to a physician's physical location can cost on average around $120, most virtual visits are less than half that price. Patients also save money on transportation and parking costs and won't experience lost wages from missing work due to an office visit.
As Covid-19 swept across the globe during the end of 2019 and 2020 and continues to be a concern worldwide, physical safety has become a much bigger concern for physicians and patients alike. For physicians who work in hospitals, limiting their exposure to sick patients helps secure their availability to serve their patients in the long term, keeping them healthy.
For patients, seeing a physician from the safety and security of their own home allows them to reduce their potential exposure to other illnesses and keep themselves and their families safe. For patients with limited mobility, online visits from homes limit the opportunity for slips, falls, and other potential injuries.
In an age where personal security is important, and HIPAA laws are designed to protect patients, virtual visits allow the patient the extra safety of private visits on a secured server. Due to laws that protect patient information, any virtual healthcare platform must include specific security features to ensure that patient data is protected from hackers and other patients alike.
Virtual visits ensure that any information input into the system by either patient or physician, such as diagnostic data or patient demographics, is encrypted and protected.
For patients that require additional services beyond office visits, such as additional diagnostic tests, referrals to specialists, or prescriptions, the virtual platforms utilized by the medical profession today offer a quick and easy transfer of patient information. Not only can physicians forward prescription data directly to the patient's pharmacy for filling, but the process can also be completed in seconds. Patients can choose whether to pick up their script or, in many cases, have their medication delivered directly to their home.
The same is true for specialty referrals and diagnostic tests. There is no more waiting for paperwork to reach the appropriate party. Online virtual medicine can ensure that specialist offices and labs are properly updated at the time of visit regarding any necessary patient follow-up care. Oftentimes, patients can use the same platform they used for their office visit to schedule a consultation with a specialist.
Online physician services are everywhere within the United States. Every major hospital is connected with a virtual service, and many health insurance companies offer their own network of physicians and pharmacies that provide online services under their health plans.
Patients can consult with their family physician, contact their local hospital, or search online with a virtual network affiliated with their specific geographical area.
Signing onto a virtual network is as easy as signing onto any interactive website by:
Once the patient has created an account, they will be provided with instructions on how to access the network.
If you are a Connecticut resident, you could go to VirtualWalkinCenter.com to have medical provider care for your healthcare needs.
While online healthcare and telemedicine services offer patients plenty of benefits, there are some disadvantages that exist currently. Many of these disadvantages are temporary growing pains as rules and regulations struggle to catch up with the technology that exists today:
During the Covid pandemic, many of the rules that make telehealth difficult have been lifting. All insurances offer some coverage for virtual visits. You can also use different platforms such as Facetime, Google Duo, and WhatsApp. However, future rule changes will most likely remove these platforms as an option.
Since virtual healthcare is still really in its infancy, the individual states have not all caught up with the services provided in this day and age. Since each individual state can create legislation regarding what services can be offered online, there is some inconsistency among states that can confuse patients.
Various rules can be a concern for patients who live on a border between two states and may access care in both. It can also vary for individuals who may move while receiving treatments.
As telemedicine continues to become part of the new normal in both primary care and specialty medicine, the US will need to do a better job at offering some continuity of care between states.
While many insurance companies offer some form of telemedicine or virtual online medical services as part of their health plans, there is still not enough continuity among insurers in terms of offering payments for virtual office visits with network physicians that are typically seen on site.
With Covid-19, many physician offices began offering online visits in lieu of onsite visits, and insurance companies have not all developed a way to pay for these services.
Insurance companies process and pay medical claims based on specific procedure codes used for billing that are consistent across the healthcare industry. Insurers develop fee schedules and fair pay amounts for each of the telemedicine procedure codes.
Typically medical services payments are driven by Medicare, a federal healthcare insurer. As procedure codes and fee schedules are developed by Medicare, private insurers and state-run insurers will begin to follow suit. Additionally, federal legislation may be necessary to require coverage of virtual healthcare.
While many diagnostic processes and consultative services can be performed by patient feedback and a visual exam, virtual medicine is limited to what the physician can see. Without the ability to touch the patient, listen to a heartbeat, or hear breath sounds, virtual healthcare simply isn't appropriate for every specialty or every patient.
As technology changes and grows, these issues may be reduced in the future, but in the interim, certain specialties, such as Orthopedics, Obstetrics, and Ophthalmology, among others, are simply best performed on an in-person basis. However, for basic family medicine, the vast majority of treatment plans and office consults can be performed online.
As technology continues to change, not all of the current virtual networks will remain viable. There are some distinct differences between platforms, and not all healthcare programs integrate successfully with each platform, making communication between doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies more difficult in some situations.
As virtual healthcare becomes more commonplace, universal technology standards within the industry must be developed.
Telemedicine and other virtual medical services have been around for decades on the fringe of typical healthcare delivery systems. However, recent events, plus the ongoing concerns about the rising cost of healthcare, continue to push online medical services into the forefront of American medicine. This provides practitioners, insurers, and patients a golden opportunity to see modern medicine in a whole new way. Online medicine and virtual healthcare are slowly changing how modern healthcare systems operate.
Today, online doctor's visits are becoming commonplace more than ever before and are ultimately becoming a standard of care, providing more opportunities for physicians and patients alike. Online physicians can offer patients streamlined services, provide excellent medical treatment, and fully manage basic patient care using a healthcare model that is safe and cost-effective. For patients concerned about the rising cost of medical treatment or staying safe in the age of Covid and other opportunistic illnesses, online physician services can offer a whole new way to access medical care safely.
