Telehealth Explained: Navigating Virtual Care, Insurance, and Online Safety | Take Care Together

Melody Mulaik and Ashley Hunter demystify the world of telehealth and telemedicine. From diagnosing a sinus infection from your couch to managing a specialist's care in a different state, virtual visits have transformed how we access healthcare. 

But with new technology comes new questions: Is my insurance going to pay for this? Is that TikTok ad for medication legitimate? 

Melody and Ashley break down the "how-to" of virtual care, provide a framework for vetting online services, and share tips for helping older family members navigate digital appointments.

Featured Topics:

• Understanding the live, virtual interaction between patients and providers for diagnosis and prescriptions.
• How to research the legitimacy, transparency, and provider availability of digital healthcare websites.
• Navigating the complexities of 2026 coverage and how state laws impact online medical care.

In this episode, Melody and Ashley discuss:

• [00:09] Telehealth allows providers to diagnose and prescribe via live video on computers or phones.
• [02:22] COVID-19 accelerated telehealth adoption and insurance coverage by roughly 20 years.
• [03:32] Virtual visits offer faster appointments for rural residents and caregivers of elderly parents.
• [05:58] While coverage continues in 2026, state laws and specific insurance plans still vary.
• [10:48] Consumers should prioritize transparency and consult local pharmacists to verify online medical services.

Want to Ask Melody? Visit: https://melodymulaik.com/ASK 

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Transcript

Melody 0:13

Hello everybody and welcome to Take Care Together. Happy New Year. Excited to be together with you this year and looking forward to tackling our next topics. My name's Melody Mulaik and with me is Ashley Hunter. And Ashley, why don't you go ahead and kick off what our topic is today.

Ashley 0:28

Definitely we've got a good topic to discuss today. You know, I had some questions recently set from some friends about telehealth, telemedicine, so I figured that would be a good topic for us to talk about today. So, I guess from a general overview, you want to start by talking about what telemedicine, telehealth technically even is.

Melody 0:49

Sure. So, you know, Telemedicine, telehealth, sometimes we use that interchangeably, and I would argue probably can use it interchangeably. It's really being able to see somebody, a provider physician, or a nurse practitioner or PA through your computer, typically. You could do it through your cell phone, or iPad, or whatever, but you're not having to physically go into an office to see someone, you actually are able to see them. It is live but able to see them and they're able to make a diagnosis and hopefully prescribe any medication that you need. There's usually a limit or a list of types of conditions and things that groups will see people this way. It's not everything. You're not going to call'em up and go, Hey, I got a broken bone. Can you do something about this? But there's a pretty long list of things that they're really good about knowing. Yep. That looks legit. And they could physically look at you through the camera and say, yeah, I can make that diagnosis of shingles and prescribe the medication that's needed.

Ashley 1:39

Awesome. I think that's a good overview. It makes me think about, me graduating right before college, moving back home. All of the doctors that I'd finally established with were in a different state and with everything shut down during the pandemic, I couldn't go to a new doctor. A lot of them were taking existing patients only, and I'm sure a bunch of people my age went through the same kind of thing. And I'm curious as someone who just entered the healthcare workforce during the pandemic, what did telemedicine telehealth look like before COVID even happened?

Melody 2:08

That's a good question. I think it was there, but it really the payers, the insurance payers, Medicare and others didn't pay for it, or they paid for it. They paid for it in very specific circumstances. And so, a lot of places just didn't do it. It didn't make any sense. They pretty much required everybody to come in. And one of the few positive things that changed in healthcare during the public health emergency was that Medicare did provide payment for that. And a lot of other payers did as well. And it really leapfrogged us ahead many years. We jokingly say, that in healthcare we're 20 years behind in a lot of things, and I still think that's true. But that helped us go along forward. So, finally doing these televisits have made a big deal. And groups are still doing it and really trying to find a way to do it, especially with having a shortage of physicians, shortage of clinical staff, and other people. Anything that groups can do to make sure they're taking care of patients, they are definitely trying to do it.

Ashley 3:02

Yeah, it's interesting. You almost dove into a hot topic there of the shortages. But I'm curious, are you using telehealth in any way? I know I still am to this.

Melody 3:10

Hmm.

Ashley 3:11

I do live in a rural city. So, a lot of the offices I go to, it's funny'cause I'll either see like a nurse practitioner or a PA or something. And other times, I can only see the actual physician through a telehealth video visit because they're not physically located in the city I live in. So, I know I still have that today. But is that something that you encounter still?

Melody 3:32

Absolutely. And actually, with my mom being in the hospital and coming home and doing some different things. She had something where she needed to get some doctor's care, but it would've been really challenging to get her in the car and be able to take her. So, I was actually able to send an email to her physician working with her, and her MyChart and everything. And the doctor set up a virtual visit and they were able to see her, which is really good'cause she's almost 90 years old. Especially for older people in addition to ourselves, it's helpful when you can help someone who's a parent or grandparent do a virtual visit.'cause technology wise, they may not necessarily be very proficient with it, but we can help. So yeah, I definitely have done it with her. I've done it with myself with some urgent care. I think sinus infection is always the one that kind of jumps to my mind of, okay, I know my symptoms, I know what works for me. Getting somebody on the phone that is willing to listen to that and help. I've definitely used that in kind of an urgent care situation. I'm fortunate in that the healthcare system I go to is very much into utilizing telemedicine wherever they can. And so, sometimes I can do it with my physician. Usually for me, I do it more with my primary care internal medicine versus my specialist. But if my specialist offered it and it was something that was makes sense to do, I totally am into it because a lot of times, a lot of the offices will set aside a certain amount of time per day just for those virtual visits, as they call'em, televisits. And those aren't necessarily booked out way in advance. And so, that may be a way to get into a doctor tomorrow. That if you're trying to physically get in there, they may be like, oh, it's two weeks, but they're like, Hey, can you meet for 15 minutes tomorrow? And you're like, sure, let me get in there. And so, it makes it a lot faster.

Ashley 5:08

No, definitely. I have one other question before I talk about the other side of telemedicine where you're not necessarily talking to a doctor on a video call. But I know I saw on the news, I think it was either the end of this year or something more recent. Didn't Medicare or CMS someone come out saying that we're not going to cover all telemedicine telehealth anymore? Or I know that's popped up in the news a lot and I'm a little bit confused as to exactly is going on with all that.

Melody 5:33

That's a good question. There actually, the whole issue of funding some of the telemedicine visits was part of some of the bills that were under discussion in Congress in 2025. And at one point when they were in the process of dealing with the government shutdown, the issue of the telehealth visits came into play for that. That got rectified. And so, as we've gone into 2026, there is coverage for it. I think the thing that I would say is, it is one of those things that could change. And so, you always have to look at what your payer is doing, whether it be Medicare or somebody else. And even with private payers. And again, pick an insurance company's name. I would definitely say look at their website to see what they do in terms of the televisits. Because I would say, I'd be afraid to tell you yes, they always covered or they don't because somebody could have a plan that absolutely doesn't. So go to, definitely go to that payer's website and research it and make sure that they cover it. I will say that most places that offer it. Like when I've gone to schedule a televisit with somebody, you have to tell'em your insurance even if you're already in their system. And part of the reason they do that is they're validating for you as well to go, Hey, wait a minute. Your plan covers it or your plan doesn't cover it. But I do think places have gotten really a lot better, some of the mental health. Services and behavioral health, that's where it gets a little bit tricky. And the rules are a little bit different. It was really good during the public health emergency for a lot of things people could get the counseling and they could get a lot of the benefits of the mental health services. And some of that changed a little bit. So, again, always look at what your payer covers. That's really important.

Ashley 7:02

Yeah. And it definitely comes down to the state level as well, especially when you start talking about mental health care. And I know there are medications out there that are controlled versus uncontrolled substances. And it definitely got more stricter once the COVID kind of played out and everything else. But you brought up an interesting point about getting therapy online. I know that's something that's really popular and it makes me shift to the other side of telehealth, telemedicine,'cause I don't know about you, but, scrolling through social media, TikTok, Instagram, I always see ads about, Hey, you can get your birth control online. You can get acne medication online. You can get see a therapist online. I don't know if that's something that's big with my generation, like only my generation or of yours as well. But what do you have you seen anything like that?

Melody 7:47

You are right. I do see the advertisements and I don't know if it's covered. And to your point, it is very much at the state level. I think if you can read the fine print below I don't watch that much tv, but sometimes if I'm watching, a show and it'll pop up for some of that, there's always that fine print below. They'll go except for states, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. To your point, the state law very much comes into play. Certain states will allow. Certain things while other states won't. And sometimes people hear me say it. So, at the federal level, national level, and this goes for arguably anything. Whenever we have federal law that goes into play, states can be more restrictive. They can't be less restrictive. And again, that's goes for anything, not just healthcare, but other things. And that's why we get into this whole issue of state's rights and federal rights and all those kind of things. And what people vote on at the state level becomes really important. So federally, nationally, there may be things that they say, oh yeah, absolutely, we'll cover this and we'll do this. And then at the individual state level, they may say, there may be particular drugs that they say, no, you can't get that drug in my state. Or I think about, shipping wine outside of California. And you join a wine club in California and Napa, there's always that little thing that says, but not to Alabama. And not to Utah and not to all these other, I don't know all the states. So, if you listening may aware of the states are same kind of concept, right? Even though it's totally legal to ship wine and a wine club outta California those individual states say, Nope, not us. So, there are some variations that come into play for those as well.

Ashley 9:13

I think it's maybe we should talk a little bit through what to expect with some of these websites'cause I know people all the time say, how do I know this isn't a scam? It was surprising talking to a few different friends that I have about like they don't really know how it works. And I think at the end of the day, when you're going through any of these sites. I think one of the very first things to look at is, what type of communication contact are you having with an actual physician or whoever it might be. A lot of them, I believe, start off where you fill out a form, basically providing your personal history, your medical history. And what's supposed to happen is a doctor md, do, mp, whoever. And then decide on your care. But I think if there's maybe not that sort of transparency of what type of communication will I have with my doctor? I know that's something that I've definitely looked at in the past. Are they going to call me? Are they going to email me? How easily can I get contact with them? What else would you consider when looking at some of these different sites?

Melody 10:10

That's a good question. And actually what we need to do, and what we will do is we're going to get an expert on here to help us talk through that, that we can interview because I will not claim to be an expert on that. But what I will say is, it is very much something that you should be cautious of. Because it is one of those, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And I think about, buying contacts is a good example, right? So, I've had contacts for years and I can buy them from my doctor where I go to get my eye appointment. And actually right now I do, but I have used other companies in the past. But I also made sure they were legitimate. They'd been around a while, and these were companies that actually did require. I provide them copy of the prescription. Nowadays, you obviously enter it all in electronically and they would contact the eye doctor to confirm it and they didn't just take your word for it. There's probably only two or three companies out there that are doing it, and I'm sure there's a lot of them that don't. It's like the things, even for vets and trying to get your dog medications. It's the same kind of concept. There's a lot of people out there that offer services online. That as consumers, we have to question, and I would argue when it comes to healthcare, we have almost got a like double, triple, quadruple check because these are things that you're going to be putting into your body. And it could be fake, it could be bad, it could be coming from another country, it could be full of junk. I don't care what they say advertising wise. The other thing that I'll just throw out there is I think we all know and social media. Half of what out there is AI generated and you got a bunch of bots doing stuff and just'cause you click on something and it goes, oh, look at all these reviews. The reviews are great. Those might not even be human beings. That could be coming from a bot farm somewhere. Or it could just be all AI generated. And so not to say there's not good stuff out there a hundred percent. But I would definitely do my research and back to if we can communicate with our physicians and I recognize everybody doesn't always have a good physician to talk to. But if you're able to reach out and go, Hey, I'm interested in this is a good website. What do you think? And get their feedback'cause they'll tell you. There's discount programs out there that exist for drugs. If you're just trying to get drugs cheaper, I would say ask your pharmacist about it. Your pharmacist actually, our great resources to go, Hey, is there another resource for this? And I hesitate to use names, so I'll go ahead and put it out there. GoodRx is an example of one where they may have a card and say that's an option. There's other ones too. I'm not advertising for them. But there's definitely things out there to ask your pharmacist, Hey, do you know why I can go get this cheaper? And I think they are probably some of the best people that are aware of what's going on from a drug standpoint. And if you say, have you heard of, X, Y, Z? They'll let you know. Yeah, we have. And if you say, if you haven't, where do you recommend I research this? But yeah, talk to your pharmacist. Every pharmacy that you go to, I don't care if it's in a grocery store, it's a freestanding one. There is always a pharmacist that is working. That is there. They may be at lunch and they may be coming back, but there's always a pharmacist who's on site and you always as a consumer, have a right to ask to speak to that pharmacist. So, even if the person in the front is a pharmacy assistant. You can say, I'd like to speak to the pharmacist please. And they are supposed to stop what they're doing when they get a chance and come and talk to you. So, take advantage of a great free resource to get that information from a pharmacist.

Ashley 13:19

Definitely. So, it sounds an overview from this part, really, one, looking at transparency is whatever website service you're looking at. Are they transparent about where they're getting any sort of medication from? If that's what the service is. And then, how available is the doctor or whatever provider they may have. So, you can do that kind of stuff online, you can go to your primary care doctor, you can go to your pharmacies'cause you know they're in the industry and they're in the know. Definitely a lot of different resources out there. And I will add to that, I know we just talked about the pharmacy. There are quite a few services out there that aren't just to get medication. Talked about therapy. There's other things where they can order labs remotely, things like that. And there's a lot of home health stuff now too. I've seen different celebrities sponsoring it, not your typical ones, but a monthly lab test of this thing that you just connect to yourself. It looks interesting, but I have done my research. It's definitely great, especially as someone that lives in a more rural healthcare setting now to that kind of bridges my gap of having to go drive over an hour to go get this type of care.

Melody 14:19

No, that's a good point. Yeah. And it's, these are all really good topics that we're going to dive into coming up this year of things that we want to get into more and understand it. Because again, if it sounds to be too good to be true, we know it is. I bet all of us have a situation where we thought we were getting something really good online and it sounded great. Then you get it in the mail and you're like, ah, that is not what I thought I was getting. Or they claim that they were a company located in South Carolina and then you open it up. And they must be the storefront for whatever company was operating in another country. But yeah, I think it's really hard with all the advertising today to know what's real and what's not real. And I think it is really important that we be as cautious as possible. The good thing about I think the telemedicine or just telehealth as a whole is that getting access to providers, meaning our physicians and our nurse practitioners, and our PAs, and those. Being able to send them email messages is another thing I would put out there. Don't hesitate to do that. They're online, you're not sending them a personal email. You're sending it through their system. And they're going to respond, or they wouldn't have it on there. Maybe it's their nurse or maybe somebody else will respond, but somebody's going to respond. And if they don't, that's a different issue. But generally, I've found providers to be very responsive with stuff. So, ask'em the questions. It can't hurt, get that additional information with it.

Ashley 15:33

Yeah, and I guess the last thing that I just thought about is and you tell me if this increases credibility. But a lot of the online different resources will take your insurance. You can have the option to be self-pay. And I do feel like, if they have some sort of agreement with your insurance where your insurance does cover it. That to me gives me a little bit more confidence in whatever service I'm evaluating. I don't know your thoughts on that.

Melody 15:57

I don't know. That's a good question. I think it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I think, yes, it should. Assuming that what they're providing is so clear to who the insurance company is and the insurance company's saying, yes. My only concern is, I would hate to say that there're bad actors out there, but there are. And if they are not being totally truthful with the insurance company. It's possible that your insurance company is paying because they're believing it's one service. But it's really something else. And so, I do think there's a lot of positives. There's some challenges with insurance companies. But a lot of times I think people think that insurance companies look at every claim and they really understand every single thing that they're doing, and they don't. A lot of their stuff is automated. A lot of it's ai. They're not looking at each claim. That's why sometimes they'll pay for things and then they'll come back and go, whoops, we didn't mean to pay for that. And you're good. And if they come back and say that you gotta give'em their money back, you have to give'em their money back. So, that gets a little bit more complicated. But yeah, I would just say, I agree with you. I think that increases credibility. But I wouldn't make it a check mark to go, my insurance company pays for it. Therefore, they've gotten a seal of approval for things'cause as much as we'd love to say that there's not some bad actors out there, we know that they are. Everybody knows. There's organizations that pop up. And some stand the test of time. I think that's really important too. If it's the latest and greatest thing. And all of a sudden, there's some famous promoting it. They're promoting it'cause they're getting paid a lot of money, not because they believe in the quality of the product. I would always be cautious. And definitely find out from other people. Or is this something that is being used? I mean, again, to your point, you said it earlier. I mean, there are a lot of very good things that are available. And there's a lot of very good services that are available and they've got good quality product. You just have to be a very cautious buyer and a cautious consumer when you're looking at'em.

Ashley 17:39

Yeah. Do your research, talk to other people, talk to doctors, talk to pharmacies.

Melody 17:43

Yep.

Ashley 17:44

Be smart online. I think everyone knows to be smart online at this point in life in general. But I definitely think overall, it's something that's been really great, especially for someone like me for a lot of others. And like I said, it's some conversations I've had recently, so I know it's something relevant. And hopefully we've been able to help a few people today understand, what it is, how to vet out different online services and how to use it with their own doctors.

Melody 18:07

Absolutely. And I think the thing I would just say is, you made the comment earlier. Is it different in the different generations? I think it is. I do think your generation who's always been in the digital age, doesn't have any concerns. I won't want to say, has have concerns, but it's more comfortable using technologies, getting it to work to your advantage. I think people, in my generation, it's a mixed bag. I think some people are very comfortable using the technology, comfortable doing the research. Equally though, I have friends and know people that are like, yeah, I'm not really too sure about that. I think I'm just going to stick with what I know and that's fine. I get it. And then, you look at my mother's generation and even the older, this is not their world. And they usually only venture into it if they've got somebody really holding their hand and helping them, which is understandable. I would say that when you get to somebody who's in their eighties, going into 90, there's only a very few of them that are super computer savvy. Unfortunately, and we talk about who some of those bad organizations are. We do see organizations that take advantage of older people. And trying to sort through that and deal with that as an issue. So, I would just say for those of you that are taking care of parents. And really trying to manage through that. Look at who they're giving money to and look at the organizations that they're doing that with. Just to make sure they're not getting scammed.'Cause unfortunately, there's a whole lot of people out there that take advantage of elderly people and take their money. And that's not really appropriate either. Hopefully we've given you a lot of good things to think about. I know we've talked about a lot of things in the broad spectrum of the virtual world, but there's a lot of really good stuff and so really want to encourage you to research it. And Ashley, I'll let you say for your generation, i'll let you add your final comments.

Ashley 19:39

For my generation, be smart, do your research, talk to friends. I talk to friends all the time about this kind of stuff. Sometimes it can be scary to go out and seek different medical help. And see doctors and stuff. But if it is the access or the ease of receiving that care that you're missing, you don't want to go to the doctor's office, but there is that option. And that's where you're deciding whether or not to go really look into this. It's an option. Consider it. It's valid. It's legit. Just do your research and be smart.

Melody 20:08

Absolutely. Thanks everybody for joining us for this episode of Take Care Together. And we look forward to seeing you again soon. Until then, take care.