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For the past several years, Dr. Amy Davis has been treating patients in southeastern Pennsylvania both in-person and via telemedicine (including video conferences and audio-only calls).
During one telemedicine video chat with a patient receiving palliative care for a serious illness, Davis reminds a counter in the background that this person may also be struggling with addiction or substance use issues. I’ve seen several items that indicate.
“Then we could gently bring it into the conversation,” Davis said. “The person was able to get the intensive care that he really needed. Other than the fact that we were on a telemedicine call and could see what was going on in the room, For months, I didn’t even know it was a problem.”
Another time, Davis had a patient who only made appointments by phone while in his car. Out of curiosity, the doctor asked if there were any privacy concerns and learned that the patient had been physically abused and that the car was a safe place to undergo a medical examination.
Davis, who chairs the Health and Public Policy Committee, is targeting these patients. American College of Physicians Pennsylvania Chapterare concerned about whether access to telehealth will be reduced or stopped altogether.
Healthcare providers and patients are trying to prepare for that possibility. Policies designed to expand Medicare during the COVID-19 pandemic Access to telemedicine It is set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress extends it until 2025.
“You can’t put the genie in a bottle, so to speak,” Davis said. “The world is different and once the policy expires, we will not be in the same situation we were in before the pandemic.”
Before the pandemic, Medicare coverage for telemedicine Targeting specific patients or specific health care providers was largely limited to rural areas or areas with labor shortages. Covered services were also limited to preventive health checkups and mental health treatment.
Davis said there was already interest in expanding telemedicine when the government declared a public health emergency due to COVID-19 in 2020 and relaxed rules and restrictions on telemedicine.
Since then, Medicare Scope of telemedicine It has also been expanded to include additional medical services such as physical therapy, eye exams, and medical nutritional counseling. This treatment is available to people living in rural and urban areas and can be performed wherever the patient is: at home, in the car, or at work.
