Telehealth services are increasingly being offered throughout the United States. These services are working to provide improved health care for all Americans. Video health care, or telehealth measures, give people immediate access to medical professionals who can effectively diagnose and treat injuries and illnesses. A growing number of drugstore clinics have also gotten into the telehealth game recently, driving the telemedicine trend even further.

CVS Health recently announced that they will be introducing internet access for their MinuteClinic treatment facilities in many states. Although these clinics in CVS drugstore locations can be more convenient than going to a doctor’s office, they can still have wait times of several hours during peak times. So, CVS has found a solution. They’ll also be offering the ability for patients to gain access to medical professionals (like nurse practitioners and physician assistants) 24/7 from their mobile devices. All they’ll have to do is log on through the CVS Pharmacy app (available for both iPhone and Android users) to get treated.

Each patient has to complete a health questionnaire indicating their medical history and current issue; then they’re matched to a board-certified health care provider that’s licensed in their state. The provider goes over the questionnaire and conducts a video-enabled visit to assess the patient’s condition and come up with an appropriate treatment plan. Providers can even prescribe medications through this service (and they don’t have to be filled at CVS pharmacies). They can also make referrals if they determine that an in-person doctor’s visit would be better for that particular case. These video visits typically last about 15 minutes. That means it’s a quick and easy doctor’s visit conducted right from your phone, without you ever having to leave the house!

CVS has introduced internet access for their MinuteClinic treatment facilities in many states.

There are tons of benefits to interacting with a medical professional in a MinuteClinic or straight through the app – the main one being that patients can now get care whenever and wherever they need it. When they’re seen by a doctor doesn’t depend on how many other patients need to be treated, so they’re able to get immediate care. Patients who live in rural or remote areas can also have more access to treatment without having to worry about transportation to a facility. Increased access means there’s a more even distribution of care for people throughout the country.

Another great benefit is that these clinics and video chats are much cheaper than an in-person doctor’s office or emergency room visit. In fact, using the MinuteClinic online service costs just $59 with a credit or debit card. Some reports say that an average ER visit typically costs around $2,000, which represents a huge amount of savings. Currently, insurance isn’t taken by CVS for telehealth visits, but the company is working on getting insurance coverage in the future. This service can also be extremely helpful for those individuals without health insurance, since everything can be paid for out-of-pocket. Plus, with a set flat rate, patients can’t be nickel and dimed with added costs. This, in turn, will help make health care more affordable and accessible for people at any income level.

There aren’t many restrictions on who can use the telehealth services, either. As long as the patient is two years old and up, they can use these telehealth options for a variety of minor injuries and illnesses including:

• Seasonal allergies
• Colds and coughs
• Earaches
• Flu
• Sinus infections
• Sore throats
• Upset stomachs
• Women’s services (like UTIs)
• Minor injuries

Since patients can be treated for these types of conditions (among others), it means that there will be reduced wait times in emergency rooms and urgent care clinics. Individuals with non-life-threatening issues can be treated with video visits, so patients with more serious problems will be able to see a doctor more quickly. In fact, the American Medical Association and Wellness Council of America states that more than 75% of doctor, urgent care, and emergency room visits can be handled through a video chat.

More and more drugstores across the U.S. are getting involved in telemedicine by offering telehealth services.

Other drugstore chains are also getting into the telemedicine race. Rite Aid has begun to work with telehealth service provider, InTouch Health, to add telehealth kiosks to their pharmacies. It’s likely an increasing number of stores will continue to implement these services to help better serve their customers. And it seems that many people are more than happy with the care they’re getting through these telehealth options. A CVS Health study noted that more than 95 percent of patients who used the video chats were highly satisfied with the quality of care they received. The same study indicated that 95% of patients were satisfied with the convenience and overall experience of the telehealth option, making it a no-brainer for choosing it in the future.

As telemedicine becomes more mainstream as time goes by, it’s likely more people in the U.S. will have access to quality health care. Patients won’t be limited by their location or whether there are certain medical professionals in their area. Treatment options will be more affordable, because providers won’t be able to charge added fees for office visits or expensive emergency room care. Overall, drugstore clinics and telehealth services like CVS’ MinuteClinic will help to improve both access to and the cost of health care for the whole country.

Telemedicine has been taking the medical world by storm in recent years, and with good reason; it completely revolutionizes the way we practice medicine in the United States of America. Taking its cues from a 1960s initiative that saw doctors linking up with remote patients via telecommunications (which essentially meant ‘phones’ back in the day), telemedicine is a way of providing on-demand health care to patients not just in remote places, but everywhere and anywhere that could benefit from instantaneous communications with doctors and healthcare professionals. As it stands in 2018, telemedicine is almost entirely digitized, and acts as a mediator between patients and doctors. But is it the same in every state in the U.S., and if not, how exactly does the most populous state in the country, the Golden State, deal with it? What is the state of telemedicine in California today?

The first thing to remember when discussing telemedicine anywhere is that it is viewed as a tool in medical practice, not a distinct or separate form of medicine in and of itself. This is very much the case with telemedicine in California, where the utilization and implementation of telemedicine goes back to 1992. That year, the University of California-Davis progressed a telemedicine program based around monitoring fetuses, especially designed for rural communities, which saw a link between the UC Davis Medical Center and a Colusa community hospital. Based on the success of that initiative, Sacramento-based Kaiser Permanente launched a home telemedicine program, while Blue Cross of California and the prison system followed their lead by introducing their own specific telemedicine programs.

Telemedicine is viewed as a tool in medical practice, not a distinct or separate form of medicine in and of itself.

In response to this growing demand, the California government decided that new legislature was needed, and a few years later, it passed the Telemedicine Development Act of 1996. This Act set much of the groundwork for the way telemedicine is practiced in the state today, and although it is a relatively new phenomenon in the field of medicine, this important piece of legislature was crucial in getting it up and running in a safe and legal manner. It imposes a few baseline requirements, such as health care plans not necessarily requiring face-to-face contact between patient and doctor (telemedicine in a nutshell), and that every patient on the receiving end of telemedicinal care must sign a written consent form.

A few years later, as digital technology continued to increase and improve, the state of California doubled down on its telemedicine bills and created a new one: The Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011. This Act clarified several definitions in relation to telemedicine in the state, and also expanded the initiative to include the term ‘telehealth’, which provided an umbrella term for telemedicine in general. Most importantly of all, it mandated private payer remuneration for telehealth services, which was a major boost for both patients and doctors alike. It also decreed that meetings between patients and doctors didn’t necessarily have to take place in licensed health care facilities. With this, telemedicine in California became more widely available, and set the framework for expedited growth in the years to come. In a few states, a person-to-person physical exam is required before a doctor and a patient can begin treatment via telemedicine; this is not the case in California, where relationships may be established solely through telemedicine and remain legitimate.

A number of different practitioners can provide telemedicinal care in the state of California – they just have to be licensed under Division 2 of the state’s Healing Arts statute. This remit includes doctors, nurses, chiropractors, midwives, dieticians, nutritionists, dentists, and more. The type of telemedicine available in the state is wide and varied, and can be applied to almost every form of health care available. Everything from clinical consultations to medical marijuana from sites like MMJ Recs constitutes telehealth, bringing California way ahead of the curve when it comes to the initiative. California is also a huge state; this makes it a perfect area to benefit from telemedicine’s other major advantage – the widening availability of specialists.

A number of different practitioners can provide care via telemedicine in California.

Previously, especially in rural areas, patients were limited to seeing the specialist who was nearest to them. As many conditions require a specialist, whether they appear serious or not, this was severely limiting for some patients, who might not have had the opportunity to shop around for a specialist that suited them, by necessity of their location. In 2018, there is a huge range of specialists available via telemedicine, and they’re not limited the nearest one available. On top of that, patients can engage with specialists when and where they want to, as opposed to being put on a long list for a physical visit that could be months or even years away.

All in all, the future for telemedicine in California looks bright. Hopefully some other states will start taking some cues from the Golden State, and incorporate its embracing and acceptance of telemedicine into their own programs.

In an age of rapid and monumental digital change, the health care sector has remained largely untouched. The internet changed the way so many industries do business, with Amazon challenging shops, Spotify and iTunes taking on physical CDs, and Netflix almost completely replacing digital television. These are unprecedented shifts in our 21st century landscape, and by all accounts, there’s plenty more to come. Yet, for a long time, health care remained the same; if you have a problem, you go and see your doctor, who assesses you and passes you onto a specialist if required. All that changed, and is set to continue to change, with the advent of telemedicine, a new arena of health care which benefits both patients and doctors.

Strangely, telemedicine is not a new concept, but instead comes from a practice introduced in the 1960s, which used telecommunications (i.e. telephones in those days) to connect remotely located patients with doctors. The same fundamental idea is still used for telemedicine in 2018, but of course, the available tools have opened up significantly. The word “telemedicine” now includes a number of different digital devices, including laptops, tablets, and the ultimate symbol of the digital age, the smartphone. Using these tools and an internet connection, patients now have access to their doctors anytime they want, as well as having access to many resources that were previously unavailable.

With telemedicine, you can contact your doctor immediately.

This is undoubtedly the single biggest way that telemedicine is disrupting the health care industry. Following on from many other industries that have introduced “on-demand” services, health care has made that leap in the form of telemedicine. Previously, a trip to the doctor was sometimes a day-long excursion that needed to be planned and prepared for a few days in advance. If your symptoms had cleared up by the time of your appointment, or even gotten worse, then you couldn’t accurately describe or show your doctor exactly what you were feeling or experiencing. With telemedicine, you can contact your doctor immediately, either when the symptoms flare up, or if you’re worried about them returning. No waiting around, no appointments; through this innovative new method of health care, you can engage a medical professional in a matter of moments, from the comfort of your home.

At its core, the U.S. health care system is largely inefficient. So much time is wasted, not only for patients, but for doctors too. Mountains of money are pumped into the system every year, by government and patients alike, but there’s no clear way of determining if all this cash impetus is being put to good use. Every year, more money seems to be applied in an effort to fix the problem, but there’s no clear-cut way of quantifying the results, if any. Telemedicine shifts the health care paradigm to one where the focus is on the patient; as a result, it becomes consumer-orientated, and much more effective because of it. By supplying health care to the country on patients’ terms, telemedicine apps and providers connect people with all sorts of health care professionals, any day of the week, day or night.

All in all, telemedicine looks to be the way of the future for health care.

Patients also now have a choice of specialists. Previously, they were stuck with the specialist recommended to them by their family doctor, which was often the one nearest to them physically. This could work out great if the specialist was well-regarded; but not so great if they weren’t. For people living in cities, this wasn’t the end of the world, as there was usually more than one specialist available to them. But for people living in remote areas, they would have no choice but to visit the only specialist available to them, regardless of their skill or reputation. Telemedicine opens up the field and lets people choose the specialist that suits them the best. Patients are no longer constrained by physical boundaries, and can engage with any specialist in the country, or even the world. Considering the host of conditions that require intimate knowledge, this is a major disruption for the health care industry, and completely changes the scope of the approach for patients and doctors alike.

There are also huge financial savings to be made via telemedicine, on both sides of the line. Patients can save money by not having to travel to visit a doctor and having reduced visitation costs, as doctors can fit more appointments into their working days. For physicians and hospital staff, administration costs go way down thanks to telemedicine, and they can also engage their patients in home analysis using the latest apps and digital aids, allowing them to get a clearer picture of the patient’s condition without having to closely monitor them personally. All in all, telemedicine looks to be the way of the future for health care, as digital dominates and transforms the landscape of many of our key industries. Patients and doctors can look forward to many more positive and beneficial disruptions!