Telehealth may offer alternative to in-person healthcare – Fort Bragg Advocate-News

FORT BRAGG Johns Hopkins University recently reported 397,870 COVID-19 cases in California as of Monday. Hospitals all over the state are overwhelmed with the increase of cases.

To reduce the impact of patient surges, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention has recommended that health care facilities switch to virtual health care by using Telehealth facilities for non-emergency appointments. Telehealth is a way to speak with your doctor or health care provider through electronic devices, such as computers, iPads or smartphones in the comfort of your own home

The Advocate-News spoke with local physical therapist Mona Lisa Perez at Pacific Physical Therapy to talk about what telehealth is and how it can be utilized here on the coast.

Its even more critical for people to be able to be seen with healthcare and still be able to stay in the safety of their home, Perez said.

Perez spoke to the Advocate-News about the specifics about telehealth, and the variety of services it offers.

Answers have been lightly edited for space.

The patient gets a referral or prescription from their doctor, thats all thats needed from their insurance to cover the visit. And most insurance nowadays covers telehealth, but its always best to check with your insurance first. Once you have that referral, they fax it to my clinic and then make my clinic alert me that the patient wants to be seen for telehealth physical therapy. I give them a call just to screen them, find out exactly whats going on and if they are a good fit for telehealth. Then what happens next is, I will send them a link to the portal and its HIPAA compliance, which means that all the information that is exchanged is completely confidential and private.

To get insurance coverage, youll need a prescription or referral from a medical provider, sufficient network internet, video/audio capability on your laptop, iPad or smartphone, microphone either built-in, or with earphones, and sign up to the portal service or video conferencing apps such as Zoom, Facetime.

If you want to have insurance coverage, yes. There are also options where patients can self-pay, and a lot of physical therapists are switching to that model now where patients who dont have access to good insurance are now doing self-pay.

So for example, data such as lab test results, medical images, such as x-rays MRI or cat scan their steps to the specialist doctor who reviews it and then sends it to report back to the patient when they have time. The other one is called interactive or synchronous and thats where you meet with your healthcare provider in real time with audio and video so you can actually see each other like you would in the clinic. The last one is called remote monitoring also known as self-monitoring and you use technological devices to monitor your health. For example, someone with diabetes or irregular heart beat can wear a type of monitor and the data is transferred over in real time.

One of the limitations are complicated treatments that need more hands-on or treatment modalities such as ultrasound or electrical stimulation are better served by going into the clinic. Our clinic is still open and seeing patients as well. Another limitation is people with a high fall risk need another person with them during the session so they can provide support. The last limitation would be not having technology thats not adequate enough. You need to have access to adequate internet so you dont have any lagging during a telehealth session.

For more information visit http://www.telehealth.com.