About Telemedicine

Telemedicine is a relatively new concept in the medical industry. Its quick development is making it easier than ever to schedule a doctor’s visit from the convenience of your home or office. The basic concept of telemedicine is to allow members to access a licensed physician over the phone, by text or through a teleconference.

This becomes a huge benefit in today’s fast paced environment where it is not always possible to sit at the doctor’s office and wait for two hours to be seen. Those late nights when kids can’t sleep and you don’t want to go to the Emergency Room for a runny nose can be quickly resolved with a quick call to your Telemedicine program and can save you a $500+ bill.

How does Telemedicine Work

First things first, you have to sign up for a Telemedicine program to have access to the doctors in a telemedicine network. We recommend MDLive because of their extensive provider network and their program is very cost efficient. Although there are several major providers across the United States that offer these services, we will cover the benefits of MDLive and how their program works.

1. After signing up and before calling in for the first time, you will need to go online and fill out a member information form that shows the provider reviewing your case what medications you are on, what your health history looks like and a few other basic pieces of information.
2. After completing your health form, you will have access to licensed providers in the state in which you are calling from. So if you live and call in Texas, you will speak to a licensed Texas provider; however, if you are visiting the state of Ohio and you call because of a sinus infection that popped up while you were out of town — you would speak to a licensed physician in Ohio.
3. When you first call the 1-800 number, you will be speaking to someone who is helping set up the appointment. They provide the doctor with your health information and the symptoms you have. They also make sure your medical information is up to date (similar to getting your weight and blood pressure checked when you go to the doctor's office). They will also make sure they are not “EMERGENCY” based symptoms — if they are, they will tell you to go to the hospital. If they is not emergency based symptoms, they will setup a call time with and get the best number to call back.
4. Typically, it takes less than an hour to receive a call back from a provider. However, if you are calling during flu season it may be a little bit longer of a wait time.
5. After you have had your call with the provider, they will call you in a prescription or provide you with a recommendation. It is that easy!

Ready for the best part of this program? There is no cost outside of the monthly membership to contact a provider. So, whether you use the MDLive program once a year or a hundred times a year — your cost is the same. The cost of membership includes everyone living in your house.

Telemedicine is new and provides a great service to its members. To have the flexibility of seeing a doctor from anywhere in the United States at no cost and a piece of mind to be able to call a doctor at 10:00 at night if the kids are running a fever just to get a professional opinion is hard to put a price tag on.

Time for you to see if Telemedicine is right for you — click here to see the low prices.