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I had some diabetes calls from a nurse when first diagnosed and after heart surgery, but those were follow up calls. The other day a VA skin Doctor called me to cancel my May appointment and ask about my various skin problems. There had been no appointment for the call. I was tickled to get it. I was going to cancel anyway. Viva la VA! I had a Cardio appointment for the 27th and I called to cancel it and happily was switched to a telephone appointment with the Doctor tomorrow morning. Wait there's more! My regular clinic called and set up my wellness check as a visual on computer style appointment for tomorrow afternoon.

Whew I will be beat!
 
Its been nice to do telemed visits now that insurances are covering them so we dont have to pack in the clinics with sick people. We never have had success in billing for phone visits before because the attorneys who work for insurance companies (who bill for phone calls) told them we would abuse it.

I'm hoping we can convince the insurances to keep paying for them when this is all done.
 
Well both went well, had to use Chrome for the video as Edge did not support 'Zoom', the app the clinic uses, had a good meeting, the internet bandwidth was jumpy a time or two, but still pretty good. Saved gas, saved time, saved waiting, and most of all saved exposure.
 
TeleMed has been used in the outback for some time, but I do wonder how it stacks up to being seen in person.

Example: Some time back, I went to see doctor to get OK'd for a scuba diving trip and still had a bit of congestion in my chest from a cold.

He ok'd me for the trip, but suggested I have the tip of my left ear looked at it upon return from the trip as the almost invisible mole on might be a slow growing melanoma.

I did and it was.

I had it removed and had to have the site examined yearly for 10 years.

The surgery was successful.

Later, I learned untreated melanomas are 98% fatal.

Think TeleMed would have spotted it?
 
We've availed ourselves of it for years as we live in the sticks. The care has been, generally speaking, pretty good for the more common things. It beats burning up a whole day of travel for some issues.
 
Yes not a do all, and I certainly want some hands on, I like it for a 'Wellness Check' where you can cheat and and have date and day of the week hidden from their view on a piece of paper, "Of course I know what day it is..."
Virus wise, I like it.
 
This tele-med trend, I don't know if I get it.

Kaiser... (pre-corona era)...They encourage you to be treated over the phone. The calls can be very lengthy, so how do they get paid for their time if you don't go to a facility? And follow up calls are equally lengthy, as you are then talking to a different person that hasn't read any history, so you must bring them up to speed.

(corona era)...We were in an auto accident two weeks ago. We were hit hard, and we both have experienced substantial discomfort. Normally we would have gone to the doctor, but Kaiser insists nobody come in without a tele-med call. We have played phone tag ever since, and have never yet talked to a real person. They won. We gave up.
 
Accidents or any trauma requires hands on I think. Illness or something that has symptoms might be telemedicine at first depending. I have a test for the Cardiologist scheduled for October, it has to be hands on. I had a referral for cataract surgery and that has been indefinitely deferred.

Medicare, the VA, Tricare and other insurances that had not readily covered telemedicine are now covering it.
 
Well both went well, had to use Chrome for the video as Edge did not support 'Zoom', the app the clinic uses, had a good meeting, the internet bandwidth was jumpy a time or two, but still pretty good. Saved gas, saved time, saved waiting, and most of all saved exposure.

My kidney doc office called a few days ago and said my office visit is going to be a telemed visit instead. "Zoom" is not going to work real well because I don''t have much bandwidth with the DSL service that I have. Might be audio only... I'm going to suggest they call me on the phone so I don't have to do all that setup for a vid call with no vid.:rolleyes:

For a home "wellness" check, how do they listen to your heartbeat and check your blood pressure, temp, etc?


I had it removed and had to have the site examined yearly for 10 years.

The surgery was successful.

Later, I learned untreated melanomas are 98% fatal.

Think TeleMed would have spotted it?

VA rural clinic has been using telehealth in-office appts cuz we are always short on docs. I don't like it generally. But they do use a trained nurse, a high def camera/pen and probably would have spotted it. They use a mic's stethoscope and the "remote" doc uses headphones to listen to heartbeat and lungs.


This tele-med trend, I don't know if I get it.

Kaiser... (pre-corona era)...They encourage you to be treated over the phone. The calls can be very lengthy, so how do they get paid for their time if you don't go to a facility? And follow up calls are equally lengthy, as you are then talking to a different person that hasn't read any history, so you must bring them up to speed.

(corona era)...We were in an auto accident two weeks ago. We were hit hard, and we both have experienced substantial discomfort. Normally we would have gone to the doctor, but Kaiser insists nobody come in without a tele-med call. We have played phone tag ever since, and have never yet talked to a real person. They won. We gave up.

No emergency room coverage? You can't go to a regular ER someplace??? Sounds like you really need to be seen... whiplash, concussion, blown arteries, popped spleen, broken ribs, etc.

Our local hospital ER now requires and appt via phone unless one is brought in by EMS.
 
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For a home "wellness" check, how do they listen to your heartbeat and check your blood pressure, temp, etc?
They asked me to take my own blood pressure, pulse, temperature and for me fasting blood count.. They did not listen to my heart or lungs, but the did ask about tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and similar questions. My Wellness Check is about six months opposite of my annual physical where they did all the hands on. Wellness seems to be a dementia check ....:D
 
They asked me to take my own blood pressure, pulse, temperature and for me fasting blood count.. They did not listen to my heart or lungs, but the did ask about tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and similar questions. My Wellness Check is about six months opposite of my annual physical where they did all the hands on. Wellness seems to be a dementia check ....:D

My diabetic check ups were every 3 months, then VA cut me back to every six months. Full physical was always 1/yr. But good Lord, home BP gear, temp, and blood sugar meters can all be way diff from the calibrated equip they are supposed to have in the office. Plus not listening to heart/lungs... I hope it's only temporary becuz IMO it's barely a cut above "waste of time" level.
 

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