THE DOCTOR IS IN on Your Nearest Screen, Hopefully

With social distancing, depression, isolation and loneliness hitting the nation’s seniors particularly hard as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has made big changes to Medicare to help doctors reach patients easier without visiting offices or hospitals. But while it appears well-intentioned, these policy changes also are going to have to be more carefully thought out over time.

- Alan M. Schlein

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Medicare to open access to telehealth, connecting patients to health care providers through videoconferencing and online in lieu of in-person visits. People have been making appointments online for a long time, and even using internet-connected monitoring devices to check blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions, but this expansion allows Medicare to pay doctors so they can do actual medical appointments.

For those Americans living in rural communities and even small towns, a visit to the doctor can turn into a day-long ordeal. So easy access to doctors has suddenly become more important than ever. The irony is not lost, however, that prior to the pandemic, the biggest criticism of telehealth was that it was too distant, wasn't intimate enough, or as one doctor suggested “you couldn’t be a hand on the shoulder”– now it’s precisely that degree of distance that has everyone embracing telehealth as fast as possible.

In addition to reducing the strain on doctors' time and resources, telehealth eliminates unnecessary hospital and emergency room visits by seniors. It also prevents the spread of illness to an older population that has much higher risk of getting COVID-19 due to underlying chronic health problems like heart issues, diabetes and lung/breathing issues.