Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, you of course didn’t want to spend half your day driving to the doctor’s office and waiting to be seen. But there really weren’t any other options. This has been changing in recent years with wider spread adoption of Tele-Health...and has especially accelerated, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicare has jumped on the bandwagon since 2020 by expanding these services to be used from the comfort of your home. Previously, Tele-Health services were very limited and not accessible at patients’ homes.
“Tele-Health” can mean a lot of things and come in different forms (also Virtual Check-Ins and E-Visits). But in general, it’s communicating and interacting with your medical providers electronically (not in-person). This could be a phone call, video call, secure email or text, or communicating through a secure patient portal. A video call is probably the first thing most people think of when Tele-Health or Tele-Medicine is mentioned. It enables you and your doctor to see each other while communicating digitally and you may get just as much benefit from the virtual visit as an in-person visit. While other virtual forms of communication, such as secure emails and texts, might not be as impactful.
Regardless of how you wish to use these services, Medicare Part B covers certain Tele-Health services. And if you have a Medicare Advantage Part C plan, you might have access to more Tele-Health services than offered via Original Medicare.
Reference Links
www.medicare.gov
Medicare & Tele-Health
Medicare & Virtual Check-Ins
Medicare & E-Visits
Neither Medicare Mindset LLC nor its agents are connected with the Federal Medicare program.
