{"id":19342,"date":"2025-01-05T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19342"},"modified":"2025-01-05T10:24:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T10:24:35","slug":"telemedicine-for-seniors-gets-a-last-minute-reprieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19342","title":{"rendered":"Telemedicine for Seniors Gets a Last-Minute Reprieve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some older Americans have come to depend on virtual consultations with doctors, covered by Medicare. To keep that option in the future, Congress will have to act quickly. <\/p>\n

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Since his cancer diagnosis last year, Kent Manuel has regularly seen an oncologist near his home in Indianapolis. It\u2019s been a tough time: After spinal surgery for paralysis caused by his cancer, he is regaining the use of his legs with physical therapy but still uses a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Now, Mr. Manuel said, \u201cI\u2019m dealing with pain.\u201d His oncologist recommended palliative care, a medical specialty<\/a> that helps people with serious illnesses cope with discomfort and distress and maintain quality of life.<\/p>\n

So in November, Mr. Manuel, 72, a semiretired accountant, started seeing Dr. Julia Frydman, a palliative care doctor. \u201cWe talk through what works and what doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cShe listens to what I have to say. She\u2019s very flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first two medications she prescribed to reduce pain had troublesome side effects. On the third try, though, \u201cI think we\u2019ve landed on something that\u2019s working,\u201d he said. His pain hasn\u2019t fully abated, but it has diminished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr. Frydman, the senior medical director at a cancer care technology company called Thyme Care, works hundreds of miles away in a Manhattan office. She and Mr. Manuel used a video telemedicine link \u2014 an option that barely existed in traditional Medicare before the Covid pandemic, thanks to restrictive federal policies.<\/p>\n

Medicare expanded its telemedicine coverage substantially<\/a> in 2020, and the expansion has regularly been renewed. That could all have ended on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

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Some older Americans have come to depend on virtual consultations with doctors, covered by Medicare. To keep that option in the future, Congress will have to act quickly. Since his cancer diagnosis last year, Kent Manuel has regularly seen an oncologist near his home in Indianapolis. It\u2019s been a tough time: After spinal surgery for paralysis caused by his cancer, he is regaining the use of his legs with physical therapy but still uses a wheelchair.Now, Mr. Manuel said, \u201cI\u2019m dealing with pain.\u201d His oncologist recommended palliative care, a medical specialty that helps people with serious illnesses cope with discomfort and distress and maintain quality of life.So in November, Mr. Manuel, 72, a semiretired accountant, started seeing Dr. Julia Frydman, a palliative care doctor. \u201cWe talk through what works and what doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cShe listens to what I have to say. She\u2019s very flexible.\u201dThe first two medications she prescribed to reduce pain had troublesome side effects. On the third try, though, \u201cI think we\u2019ve landed on something that\u2019s working,\u201d he said. His pain hasn\u2019t fully abated, but it has diminished.Dr. Frydman, the senior medical director at a cancer care technology company called Thyme Care, works hundreds of miles away in a Manhattan office. She and Mr. Manuel used a video telemedicine link \u2014 an option that barely existed in traditional Medicare before the Covid pandemic, thanks to restrictive federal policies.Medicare expanded its telemedicine coverage substantially in 2020, and the expansion has regularly been renewed. That could all have ended on Dec. 31.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19344,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19345,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19342\/revisions\/19345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}