Going online for doctors’ appointments and to access health care services has become a hallmark of the pandemic. When appropriate for the health issue, communicating over a computer or phone is safer and can be easier than leaving home to drive to an appointment. But only for those with reliable, high-speed internet. Dr. Karen Saylor, president of the Maine Medical Association, is privy to the pros and cons.
Governor Ned Lamont signed an executive order extending the use of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The executive order will modify certain state laws to allow expanded access to these virtual services. The governor issued Executive Order No. 7G when the pandemic began last March, which utilized the emergency authority granted to him due to the pandemic to relax certain laws regulating these services.
As a national leader in the insurance sector, Iowa was well-positioned when the coronavirus pandemic struck. As COVID-19 forced the Legislature to suspend activity in March of 2020, necessity drove health insurance carriers into innovation overdrive. Iowa insurers swiftly adapted to meet patient health care needs by adjusting policies to accommodate the demand for virtual care.
SILER CITY — In early 2020, El Futuro's mental health clinics offered primarily in-person services, save for a telehealth program they'd designed for farmworkers. Now, in early 2021, it's just the opposite: Thanks to COVID-19, the non-profit has pivoted to offering telehealth services only, with little to no in-person exceptions.
ATLAS sites give veterans a private, secure location — in a familiar setting — to meet with their VA provider virtually using VA Video Connect, the administration's secure videoconferencing technology.
Consumers found that telehealth was in fact better than a good substitute for a physical office visit with the parking, waiting and various associated friction points that simply aren’t present with a virtual visit. The patient consumer has been won over.