Telemedicine (also sometimes called telehealth) services are a way to deliver healthcare services locally to a patient when the healthcare provider is located at a distant site. Telemedicine is generally defined as the use of electronic information and communications technology to exchange medical information from one site to another site to provide medical and/or surgical treatment to a patient an or to participate in the medical diagnosis of, or medical opinion or medical advice to, a patient.
Women’s Healthcare associates of Redding currently utilizes audio only telemedicine services, when a healthcare provider believes a patient may benefit you from this service. Telemedicine services often provider a broader access to medical care, eliminates transportation concerns, and increases comfort and familiarity for the patients and their families when located in their own homes or other local environments.
Telemedicine services may not be as complete as in-person healthcare services because the healthcare provider will not always be able to observe subtle non-verbal communications such as a patient’s posture, facial expression, gestures, and tone of voice.
Any audio telemedicine conference provided to you via telephone will be treated as a face-to-face encounter and documented in your medical record the same as any in-person encounter would be documented. These telemedicine encounters will be billed to your insurance the same as in office visits.
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