How Telehealth Apps Impact Medical Specialties

It’s high time that physicians across varied medical specialties embrace advanced healthcare technology like telehealth and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). The federal government has relaxed its statutory and regulatory restrictions to accommodate the virtual healthcare needs for patients during the current COVID19 pandemic situation. Payers reimburse telemedicine visits through CPT medical coding which includes coverage for both physician-and-patient visits and physician-to-physician consults via HIPAA-compliant telehealth apps like OnCall.MD.

Endocrinologists & Telehealth 

Endocrinologists specialize in treating hormone-related illnesses including diabetes and hypothyroidism. They need to conduct regular medical consultations on an ongoing basis to supervise whether the administered medication dosages are beneficial or not for patients in the long-term. The video consultations through telehealth apps provide a great opportunity for both endocrinologists and their patients. In addition, virtual visits also double up as a first-level screening for healthcare professionals to decide if a patient needs to visit the clinic/hospital or continue receiving medical care from the comfort of their homes. These remote consultations for chronic conditions are highly billable and reimbursable.

Healthcare providers can now automate patient intake paperwork, preliminary questionnaires, and reminders for upcoming physician’s visits on telemedicine platforms like OnCall.MD. They can easily reach rural and remote populations across the country while tackling the shortage of medical specialists like endocrinologists, pediatricians, and OB-GYNs in those regions.

Pediatricians & Telehealth 

A pediatrician specializes in the physical, behavioral, and mental health of children. They diagnose and treat children as their primary care doctors for varied illnesses. We cannot deny the fact that it’s highly crucial for children to receive continuous medical care irrespective of time and location even during the current pandemic situation. Telehealth for medical specialists such as pediatricians and pediatric surgeons can save a lot of time, effort, and money for parents while providing better returns for providers.

Advanced telemedicine apps such as OnCall.MD can deliver essential healthcare for children 24/7. The app offers patients better accessibility and availability to consult with their physicians over video conferencing. Though providers will need to assess their patient’s vital signs like body temperature, a telehealth app can be easily connected to FDA-approved remote vital signs monitoring devices in order to measure and capture a patient’s vital signs in an instant.

OB-GYN & Telehealth 

An obstetrician-gynecologist or OB-GYN treats a wide range of health conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, and female reproductive health. More often, women visit their OB-GYNs as their primary care doctors for varied health conditions including postpartum depression, gestational diabetes, and preconception care. The current COVID19 pandemic poses a huge challenge for patients to receive timely consultations from the healthcare professionals in medical specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology.

Telemedicine apps like HIPAA-compliant OnCall.MD equip the OB-GYNs to reach out to their patients at any time and from any location through online video consultations and a host of other advanced features. It can have a huge impact on improving the quality of healthcare delivery for pregnant women and mothers of newborns, especially during the pandemic through ongoing counseling, and medication management.

Fair Health’s white paper published in 2019 reports that the number of medical insurance claims submitted for virtual medical care through telehealth platforms increased by 53% from 2016 to 2017. It’s evident that telehealth platforms are the future of the healthcare industry since it facilitates efficient and effective healthcare delivery for all for a diverse range of medical specialties from anywhere at any time.