Telemedicine connects you with a doctor or other healthcare provider through video, phone, or messaging instead of an in-person office visit. You schedule an appointment, log into a secure platform, and receive care from wherever you are. About one in four Medicare users and over 20% of all U.S. adults now use telehealth services regularly, and 95% of federally funded health centers offered it for primary care in 2024.
Three Types of Telemedicine
Not all telemedicine happens in real time. The type you use depends on what kind of care you need.
Live video or phone visits are the most familiar form. You and your provider talk at the same time, either on a video call or a phone call. These work like a traditional appointment: you describe your symptoms, the provider asks questions, and you leave with a plan. Most urgent care, therapy sessions, and follow-up appointments use this format.
Asynchronous messaging lets you and your provider communicate without being online at the same time. You might submit photos of a rash, answer a questionnaire about your symptoms, or exchange messages with a provider through a patient portal. The provider reviews everything on their own schedule and responds later. This format is convenient when your concern isn’t urgent and you don’t need a back-and-forth conversation in real time.
Remote patient monitoring uses connected devices that send your health data to your care team automatically. Common devices include blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors, heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters, and Wi-Fi scales. Johns Hopkins and other health systems mail these devices to patients at home, then track the readings remotely. This is especially useful for managing chronic conditions like diabetes or heart failure, where providers need to spot trends between visits.
What Happens During a Virtual Visit
The process mirrors an office visit more closely than most people expect. It typically unfolds in three stages.
Before the appointment, you’ll fill out forms online covering your reason for the visit, insurance information, symptoms, and medical history. If you’re not comfortable entering this information electronically, a staff member can collect it from you by phone. You’ll also get instructions for the platform you’ll be using, including how to test your camera, speakers, and microphone.
When the visit starts, a staff member may join first to verify your identity, confirm the reason for your visit, and review your intake information. They might ask you to report vitals if you have the equipment at home, like a blood pressure reading or your current weight. Then your provider joins, and the visit proceeds much like it would in an exam room: they ask about your symptoms, review your history, examine what they can see on camera, and discuss a care plan.
After the visit, your provider can send prescriptions electronically to your pharmacy, order lab work at a facility near you, schedule follow-up appointments, or refer you to a specialist. You’ll typically get a visit summary through your patient portal.
Technology You Need
For a video visit, you need a device with a camera and microphone (a smartphone, tablet, or computer) and a reasonably fast internet connection. The FCC recommends minimum download and upload speeds of 25 and 3 megabits per second for video telemedicine. If other people in your household are streaming video or gaming at the same time, you may need faster speeds to avoid lag or dropped connections. Speeds of 100 Mbps download and upload are considered optimal.
If your internet connection isn’t reliable or you don’t have access to video technology, audio-only visits by phone are an option. Medicare permanently covers phone-only visits for behavioral and mental health care, and covers them for all other telehealth services through the end of 2027.
How Your Privacy Is Protected
Telehealth platforms used by healthcare providers must comply with HIPAA, the federal law that protects your medical information. This means your provider can’t use a regular consumer video app like FaceTime or Zoom’s free version. They must use a platform from a technology vendor that meets HIPAA standards and has signed a formal agreement to protect your data. In practice, this means your video calls and messages are encrypted, your records are stored securely, and only authorized people can access your information.
What Telemedicine Works Well For
Virtual visits are well suited to a wide range of care: cold and flu symptoms, skin concerns (via photos or video), medication management, mental health therapy, chronic disease check-ins, post-surgical follow-ups, and lifestyle counseling. A large study at a public healthcare system found that patients rated video visits higher than in-person visits across multiple satisfaction measures, including ease of scheduling (88.2 vs. 81.3 out of 100), concern shown by the provider (91.2 vs. 88.1), and likelihood of recommending the practice to others (90.4 vs. 88.6). Video visits scored higher than both in-person and audio-only visits in nearly every category.
Mental health care has become one of telemedicine’s strongest use cases. Medicare now permanently covers behavioral and mental health telehealth services from the patient’s home, with no geographic restrictions. Marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors are permanently eligible to provide these services.
What Telemedicine Can’t Do
Some situations require hands-on examination or equipment that only exists in a clinic or hospital. If you’re experiencing chest pain, difficulty breathing, signs of a stroke, a broken bone, or severe bleeding, you need emergency care in person. Telemedicine also has limits for conditions that require palpation (physically feeling a lump or joint), imaging (X-rays, MRIs), or procedures like biopsies and blood draws. Your provider will tell you if your concern needs an in-person visit, and many telehealth appointments end with a referral to a physical location for testing or procedures when needed.
Insurance Coverage
Most major insurers now cover telehealth visits, though the details vary by plan. Medicare has extended broad telehealth coverage through December 31, 2027, allowing patients to receive non-behavioral telehealth services at home with no geographic restrictions. Audio-only visits are covered during this period as well. Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics can serve as telehealth providers for both mental health (permanently) and general care (through 2027).
Private insurers generally cover telehealth at the same rate as in-person visits, though copays and deductibles still apply. Your cost for a virtual visit is typically the same as what you’d pay walking into the office. Check with your insurance plan before your first visit to confirm what’s covered, especially if you’re using a direct-to-consumer telehealth service that operates outside your regular provider network.