Bring Back Telehealth!
Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Friday, October 3, 2025
Had a bad(ish) night and I am in some pain this morning. It's to be expected. I was given instructions on how to deal with the pain (stay ahead of it), and I intend to follow them. I was told to take a Tylenol when I got out of bed, and the pain is now down to a dull roar. This is all to be expected with this sort of procedure.
I will be taking it very easy today as I'm still a bit unsteady. I was also told that was to be expected. Yeah, make me sit at my desk and fool around with small projects all day. ;-)
I do want to take a moment to talk about something that happened with the shutdown, and this really shouldn't be partisan. It's about Medicare paying for telehealth visits. This was instituted during COVID in 2000, and Congress has continued to extend it.
Telehealth visits are useful to people with disabilities and people who shouldn't be leaving the house. Not everything can happen with a televisit, but they're perfect for consults or visits that don't require direct contact with the doctor's office.
Two examples: Y'all know I have a sibling who is disabled and doesn't drive. She can do some meds check-ins with her PCP over the phone. She has done several consults with a specialist who is nearly an hour's drive away. I've had two consults with my surgeon over the phone. Tuesday I was supposed to go see him in an office that was a 45-minute drive (as opposed to 15), and his scheduler said it was silly for me to drive all that way because it was something he could literally take care of with a ten minute phone call. He was talking to me about the port implant and asking if I had any questions. I had a telvisit after I got out of the hospital the first time so he could tell me about the preliminary diagnosis and what to expect, and when they hoped to have surgery. Again, they were giving me the opportunity to stay home and rest up and not exert myself with the drive. It was about MY health.
If I'd gone to the office I'd have had to fill out paperwork, get my vitals checked, and wait my turn. For both of these visits someone called in advance to get my latest meds list. Tuesday I checked my own BP while the staff member was on the phone. Most of the paperwork these days is being done through online portals. I can get my test results as soon as their available. (See last night's happy post!)
Why not cover telehealth? If all the doctor is doing is passing along information and taking questions, why not?
Again, this shouldn't be a partisan issue, and ought to be baked into Medicare coverage. I've seen first hand how well it works.
Filed under: Life
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