Because many rules surrounding telehealth have changed rapidly, it's best to double-check ahead of time with your health insurance provider that the service you're seeking to receive via a telehealth visit will be covered. This saves time and helps focus the call on the most important aspects of managing your chronic condition. That way, the provider can have it in hand and can review it prior to the visit, she says. Antinori-Lent says it's helpful to make sure that if you're going to be meeting with a provider for routine care, such as diabetes management, you forward your blood sugars and other information the doctor needs prior to the call.

Make sure your doctor has the information they need.

Check with your doctor's office to be sure your paperwork is up-to-date and accurate beforehand. 'We still need the same information regarding insurance and any forms normally filled out while sitting in the waiting room,' Stukus says.

Make sure your paperwork is filled out.

This approach can extend the reach of providers who can't physically get to more rural locations and enable rural patients to more easily access specialist care at a larger, urban institution. England says that in some cases, which may be more common in rural settings, the patient will go into the office of their primary care provider and from there will connect via an audio-visual connection with a specialist provider – who may be in another hospital or health care center hundreds of miles away.

Other health screenings, such as hearing tests for kids and cognitive testing in older adults, may also be offered remotely. 'Checking if someone needs the test and following people who are quarantining with mild symptoms is mostly about asking questions,' which lends itself well to a telehealth approach, he says. Kvedar, vice president of connected health at Partners HealthCare and a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Many doctors and health care centers are offering remote screening options for COVID-19, says Dr. In the current crisis, a virtual doctor's visit is a smart way to reduce the potential for transmission of infection. Mental health services and counseling are usually talk-based and typically require no hands-on care from the provider, making these services especially well-suited to remote delivery. For people with chronic conditions that require prescription medication, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, a routine check-in is often necessary. Services that require counseling and education, such as prenatal care and diabetes management. If medications are needed, the prescriber may be able to send a prescription directly to your pharmacy. Primary care and urgent care where the provider is following up a previous visit or checking in with the patient to determine whether more direct care is necessary. EHealth is a catch-all term related to electronic-based health information and services. MHealth refers specifically to health care services delivered via a mobile device. Remote patient monitoring uses digital tools to collect medical and other health data and transmit it to a health care provider. A virtual visit is another term that typically connotes 'live, two-way audiovisual communication,' Chiarelli says, 'but there are many other ways we use technology to provide the right care at the right place and right time.' Chiarelli, a psychiatrist and medical director of behavioral health integration with the Facey Medical Group in Mission Hills, California. Though they're technically different terms, these days they're used largely interchangeably by most health organizations, says Dr. Telehealth is the more common term, but telemedicine is also used sometimes. You may be seeing multiple terms related to the delivery of health services in a remote way.

Office visits