Help Flatten the COVID-19 Curve with Telehealth Services

Telehealth keeps medical costs down and helps patients avoid possible exposure to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home mandates across the country make a traditional office visit to your doctor either out of the question or, at the least, not something you want to do if you can avoid it. As a person of faith, you are likely concerned with doing everything you can to keep yourself and your neighbors safe at this time and flatten the curve, slowing the spread of the virus.

That said, sometimes you do need the advice and support of a qualified medical professional. A virtual telehealth visit may help you get the medical assistance you need, and you’ll be glad to know that a healthcare sharing program can help you cover the cost of telehealth services.

Telehealth: An Affordable and Accessible Option

While healthcare providers may not be encouraging in-person visits for non-emergency medical issues at this time, many of them are offering virtual appointments via telehealth platforms. Whether that means contacting a doctor over the phone or conducting an online video conference, you can get the medical advice you need while complying with social distancing requirements.

Telehealth helps keep communication between health care providers and patients open.

Telehealth is a smart choice for families using health care sharing programs during the COVID-19 crisis. Here’s why.

How Health Sharing Program Members Benefit from Telehealth

Since health sharing program members all contribute financially to sharing plans, keeping medical costs down can help stretch every dollar. Telemedicine can provide a more affordable option to in-office visits for patients, health care providers, and health sharing organizations.

According to research, the average cost of a virtual doctor consultation can be as much as four times lower than the cost of an in-person visit. Those are savings that can be passed on to members of a health sharing plan. By keeping health care costs down, members are fulfilling their obligations to care for each other without an unnecessarily inflated financial burden.

Telehealth services, then, can be a win-win situation for a member of a health sharing program. First, telehealth services alleviate any fear you might have of contracting COVID-19 by close proximity to other people in a traditional medical setting. Second, access to the funds needed to deal with medical expenses incurred in telehealth visits can lighten the financial weight of paying for these services.

Further, members who use telehealth services wisely satisfy their Christian obligation to help their neighbors since such services are more cost-effective for the membership as a whole.

Acts 4:32-35: All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had … and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. 

Under the UHSM Health Care Sharing Program, members can take advantage of unlimited telemedicine services with board-certified health care providers the moment they become members at no extra cost. Members get affordable, simple, fair, and friendly services when they become a part of UHMS’s comprehensive Christian health sharing program.