Telehealth

I got an email this week from my health insurance company encouraging me to use their telehealth feature. I don’t know what to make of telehealth. It seems like a good idea I guess – you get to talk to a health care professional in person but I worry about what can be missed when you aren’t face to face.

Will the doctor miss something because they can’t see symptoms as well? I don’t go to the doctor a lot but what about the last time I had a sore throat? Who’s going to do the test for strep if I’m on a video call with the doctor? Or what about when I sprained my ankle? How do I get an x-ray if I’m using telehealth? Will I still end up at the urgent care? And then what are the insurance impacts? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions – and from what I can tell in researching, the answers might change depending on your health care coverage.

Here’s some info on telehealth – https://telehealth.hhs.gov/patients/why-use-telehealth?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0MexBhD3ARIsAEI3WHJCLW07LarH0Y7ekhE14PuCJ3P2rKr5WQVI3IwEoNZeBlS8-kTSoJcaAs4hEALw_wcB

I was out with a group of friends last night and one of the ladies has recently had a mastectomy. Complications put her in the ER and more complications lead to an ambulance ride to a second hospital 45 minutes away. She says she has good health insurance – and yet before the complications, she already had $40K in bills her insurance won’t cover and she is still looking at surgery for reconstruction.

I have moved around a lot as an adult – and I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t have good records for all the medical procedures/treatments I’ve had over the years. I think our healthcare system is a mess – but I don’t have a good solution. But things to start with? I would like to see more transparency in billing – and some sort of system that tracks your health care providers and treatments from cradle to grave. I’d love to hear your thoughts – how about you leave them in the comments?