Telemedicine Is a Tool — Not a Replacement for Your Doctor’s Touch

(By Elisabeth Rosenthal for Kaiser Health News)

Earlier in the pandemic it was vital to see doctors over platforms like Zoom or FaceTime when in-person appointments posed risks of coronavirus exposure. Insurers were forced — often for the first time — to reimburse for all sorts of virtual medical visits and generally at the same price as in-person consultations.

By April 2020, one national study found, telemedicine visits already accounted for 13% of all medical claims compared with 0.15% a year earlier. And covid hadn’t seriously hit much of the country yet. By May, Johns Hopkins’ neurology department was conducting 95% of patient visits virtually compared with just 10 such visits weekly the year before, for example.  Continue reading the article here…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

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