Telemedicine is changing the lives of people in numerous positive ways. Many different segments of society are benefiting from using telemedicine in place of more traditional forms of medicine.

One group that is benefiting particularly well is senior citizens. On average, older people tend to require more medical treatment than younger people. So older people can benefit from using telemedicine in particularly profound and life-changing ways.

Here are eight ways telemedicine can improve the lives of senior citizens.

Telemedicine Allows Senior Citizens to Consult From Home

Using telemedicine, a senior citizen can consult with a medical professional of their choice from the comfort of their own home. Being able to perform many consultations from home using telemedicine means that senior citizens have less need to travel to doctors’ surgeries and hospitals. Being able to have their medical consultations done from home can seriously improve the lives of senior citizens.

Telemedicine Gives Senior Citizens More Choice

Telemedicine opens up a whole universe of choice to senior citizens. Whereas before, when using traditional medicine, a senior citizen’s choice would be limited to the small selection of medical professionals that happen to operate in their area, now they can choose to consult with doctors and medical specialists that are based in any location, within the United States or beyond. This vastly increased level of choice is a big improvement in the lives of senior citizens.

Telemedicine offers so many benefits for seniors, including increased choice and the ability to save time and money.

Telemedicine Saves Senior Citizens Time

Most senior citizens are retired after having done many decades of hard work. Senior citizens’ time is precious and they want to enjoy their hard-earned retirement years as much as possible. Telemedicine is a huge time-saver. This means that senior citizens can spend more time enjoying life and doing things they want to do.

Telemedicine Saves Senior Citizens Money

Living on a finite pension often requires being frugal. Money can be tight for senior citizens, and medical bills can seriously eat into a person’s pension pot. Telemedicine gives senior citizens the option to shop around and find the best value medical care available. This ability to save money can be a huge improvement in the life of a senior citizen.

Telemedicine Encourages Senior Citizens to Become More Tech-Savvy

Technology is improving at an exponential rate. People who don’t manage to keep up-to-date with modern technology can be left behind and miss out on the awesome benefits that it brings. Senior citizens often find it more difficult to keep up-to-date with modern tech because they have been doing things ‘the old way’ for so long. Telemedicine can be the impetus older people need to learn about modern tech. In order for a senior citizen to enjoy the time-saving and money-saving benefits of telemedicine, they need to have a working knowledge of the internet, smartphones, and tablets. The knowledge they gain can then be translated into other areas. Using telemedicine can be an excellent learning experience for senior citizens.

Engaging with technology through using telemedicine services is a great benefit for senior citizens.

Telemedicine Means Senior Citizens Can Spend Less Time in Doctors’ Waiting Rooms and ERs

Doctors’ waiting rooms and hospital emergency rooms tend to be populated by various germs and viruses. An enclosed space full of sick people is not a healthy or fun place to hang out. Senior citizens are often more susceptible to these germs and viruses than younger people due to their weaker immune systems. Older people can often leave a doctor’s waiting room sicker than when they arrived. Telemedicine means that for many conditions, a senior citizen can avoid spending any time at all in a doctor’s waiting room or hospital ER, and this can vastly improve their health and quality of life.

Telemedicine Is Great For Senior Citizens With Mobility Issues

Senior citizens tend to suffer from mobility issues more than any other segment of the population. Medical conditions that hamper mobility such as arthritis are more common among senior citizens. Telemedicine makes it possible for senior citizens with mobility issues to travel less and to get their medical consultations done from the comfort of their own home. 

Telemedicine Allows Senior Citizens to Explore the World

After long decades of being stuck in one location due to career, work, and family commitments, many senior citizens would love to travel and explore the world. Telemedicine allows senior citizens to get their medical needs met remotely. This means that they can finally fulfil their dreams of seeing exotic regions of the country or world. Telemedicine allows senior citizens to be much more location-independent, and this can mean a huge improvement in their lives.

With levels of private debt in the United States sitting at worryingly high levels, people need to save money now more than ever. Americans need to budget, and many need to tighten their belts. Many economic forecasters predict that with increased longevity and low savings rates, there may be a pension crisis looming. Millions of people may be heading towards an old age in which their pension pots will not support a comfortable lifestyle. A lot of Americans could end up having to do paid work far beyond traditional retirement age, and perhaps even until they die. In this climate, money-saving has to be a priority. Medical bills are a particularly huge drain on the finances of millions of Americans – but fortunately, the benefits of telemedicine have arrived on the scene, and just in the nick of time!

Telemedicine is often a much cheaper treatment option than traditional medicine. Using telemedicine, a patient can save big bucks by choosing the best value medical treatment from a much larger pool of options. Telemedicine can also save people money on transport and travel, as well as allowing them to not take unnecessary time off work. Telemedicine has come to the rescue of many financially hard-up Americans who need all the money-saving help they can get.

Here are five money-saving benefits of telemedicine.

Telemedicine Provides More Choice

The more options a consumer has, the better price they are almost certain to get for a service. Telemedicine provides patients with much more choice than ever before. Patients can now choose medical professionals in different localities, cities, and even countries. One of the biggest benefits of telemedicine is that it allows patients to shop around and find the best possible value. The fact that customers can consult with doctors anywhere in the world is forcing medical professionals, in general, to be more competitive with their pricing. Telemedicine gives patients much more choice, and this increased choice can provide massive money-saving benefits.

When you have to make every penny count, having the option to use telemedicine services can be a real life-saver.

Telemedicine Decreases Travel Expenses

Traveling to and from medical consultations can cost a lot of money. People often need to consult with specialist doctors that are located far away – in different towns, cities, or even states. Traveling to and from an in-person medical consultation costs money, either in gas and vehicle maintenance or in public transport costs. Often a person will need to fly for a number of hours to get to the location where a specialist is located. That’s where another of the benefits of telemedicine comes in: it allows patients to consult with medical professionals in any location remotely using telecommunications technology. Being able to consult with a doctor from the comfort of your own home is much more economical and saves a lot of money in travel expenses.

Telemedicine Means Less Time Off Work

Visiting a medical professional in-person is a time-consuming undertaking. When travel times and queuing at the surgery are taken into account, a visit to a medical professional can take many hours, and sometimes even a whole day. When an in-person consultation takes this long it often means that the patient needs to take time off work, even if their medical condition does not actually necessitate any time off. This time off work often means a loss of earnings. One of the greatest benefits of telemedicine is that it allows people to save a lot of time by consulting with a medical professional remotely. This means it also saves people money by making it less necessary for them to take forced time off work.

There are so many benefits of telemedicine services, not least the greatly reduced expenses that can help you save money on your health care.

Telemedicine Breaks Up Expensive Local Monopolies

Telemedicine opens up the market. In times gone by, many localities were served by only one or a small few medical practitioners. This meant that the more unscrupulous doctors could charge higher fees because their patients had no choice but to pay them. Patients in small towns were often at the mercy of a monopoly, duopoly, or cabal. Telemedicine has made this type of unfortunate situation all but impossible. Telemedicine gives patients such a wide range of choice that they can easily take their business elsewhere if their local doctor is charging too much. This means that, in practice, no local doctor can afford to charge too much. By breaking up local monopolies, telemedicine has saved a lot of people a lot of money.

Telemedicine Is Getting Cheaper All the Time

Not only does telemedicine allow for all of the aforementioned money-saving opportunities, but it also is getting cheaper and cheaper in and of itself. Modern technological devices are getting cheaper as the technology becomes more advanced and easier to mass-produce. Smartphones and tablets are cheaper now than ever before. There are myriad high-quality telemedicine apps vying for the public’s attention, and this fierce competition drives prices lower and lower. The technology space in general, and the telemedicine space in particular, are highly competitive. Some of the best and brightest minds on Earth are working hard to develop the most cost-effective and best value technologies and apps. This is wonderful news for the consumer. Telemedicine is getting cheaper all the time, and this rapid progress brings excellent money-saving benefits to patients.