In 2020, the DEA temporarily relaxed some of its telemedicine regulations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed for greater flexibility in prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine. These temporary changes included the following:

1. In-Person Examination Waiver: During the public health emergency, the DEA allowed for telemedicine evaluations without a prior in-person examination. The waiver is typically required in most cases.

1. Partial Waiver of Ryan Haight Act Requirements: The Ryan Haight Act had stringent requirements for prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine. The DEA provided a partial waiver of these requirements during the public health emergency.

1. DEA Registration Requirements: Telemedicine providers were temporarily allowed to treat patients in any U.S. state, regardless of the provider’s DEA registration location.

The Telemedicine Revolution

 Although telemedicine had been in practice for decades, it debuted into the healthcare landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic. With stay-at-home orders across the United States, healthcare providers use telemedicine to stay committed to their patients and continue offering quality healthcare services. Telemedicine delivers medical care to patients at a distance, providing enhanced quality care, decreased patient readmissions, and decreased healthcare costs for patients and healthcare facilities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to telemedicine decreased the number of in-patient visits and consultations. Telemedicine was instrumental in reducing the spread of disease through more efficient surveillance of patients, early identification of infectious disease processes, allowing for immediate care, and continuing care for patients with chronic illness.

Prescribing Controlled Substances Using Telehealth

The telemedicine flexibilities that were in place during COVID-19 state that:

– A healthcare provider can prescribe a controlled substance to a patient using telemedicine even if the patient is not in a clinic or hospital registered with the DEA.

– Buprenorphine can be prescribed by qualifying healthcare providers to existing and new opioid use disorder patients based on telephone evaluations.

According to a study in JAMA Psychiatry 2023, patients who were treated for opioid-use disorder through a telehealth provider and seen between September 2019 and February 2021 were found to have a 33% lower rate of fatal overdose than patients who received no medication.

 Patients who had an opioid use disorder were able to start buprenorphine treatment with decreased delays compared to in-person visits and evaluations. Studies have found that the standard issue patients with abuse disorders face is access to transportation and childcare.

Overall, drug overdose deaths were found to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, spanning over one hundred thousand deaths in 2021. Approximately 755 of those deaths were related to opiate abuse. The Centers for Disease (CDC) reported that the increased deaths were a result of social distancing, disruption of healthcare, and stay-at-home orders.

The ‘Darkside’ of Telemedicine

Many researchers also argued that online interactions are impersonal and potentially dangerous because an online provider may need an accurate health history and physical exam from the patient.

Along with the COVID-19 telehealth revolution came an increase in equity funding for various telehealth startups, which reached over 18 billion dollars. Unfortunately, practices at these new telehealth ‘startups’ have been known to engage in evil activities such as liberal prescribing at Cerebral and Done Health, which created possible violations of the Controlled Substance Act, which alerted the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation. They further noted that the private health information of patients was being distributed to advertisers by BetterHelp, which prompted an intervention from the Federal Trade Commission.

The DEA’s Proposed Rules

The DEA is proposing a rule that all patients prescribed non-narcotic schedule III through V drugs must be seen by a prescribing healthcare provider and have undergone an in-person evaluation by the telemedicine provider. The rule also states that the telemedicine provider can prescribe up to a 30-day supply of non-narcotic schedule III through V medications.

Patients who are receiving buprenorphine for the strict purpose of opioid use disorder must also be seen in person and can receive a 30-day supply of medication.

Controlled substances bring with them increased risks of misuse and dependency, which can have fatal consequences. The DEA’s focus is to limit inappropriate prescribing practices.

In-person healthcare visits and medical examinations decrease the risk of misuse by:

-Assessing risks of misuse

-Ruling out medical causes of symptoms

-Provides accompanying data to audio and telehealth examinations and visits

“Listening Sessions”

Earlier this fall, the DEA held two days of ‘listening sessions’ where over thirty-eight thousand comments regarding the proposed telemedicine rules were received. The American Academy of Medicine’s (AMA) president, Dr. Jesse Ehernfeld urged the DEA to adopt a federal policy regarding the prescribing of controlled substances based on telehealth visits that will continue to support patients’ access to evidenced-based care. The AMA’s focus is to provide access to care with a mix of in-person and telehealth visits to better meet the needs of every patient.

The DEA states that they will continue to monitor all input received and are working to put together a final set of telemedicine regulations by the fall of 2024. This allows ample time for patients and healthcare providers to plan and prepare for the new rules and regulations once they are executed.

Are you looking to add travel and adventure to your life? MedCare Staffing has a variety of long-term and short-term locum tenens assignments. Click here for more information.

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1. A Good Quality Webcam

While a webcam is not technically considered telemedicine equipment, excellent video quality that comes with a good webcam can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful virtual visit. Not only does a high-quality video present a professional image to patients, but it helps to ensure a more accurate assessment of the patient and ensure clear communication. For those facilities that have multiple telemedicine rooms, a higher-end consumer-grade webcam may be expensive but is an overall worth-it expense. Not all telemedicine consultations require such high-quality video, but those that do can benefit from a good webcam, such as a dermatologist.

2. Reliable High-Speed Internet

Once you’ve chosen your webcam, it’s time to check on your internet connectivity. Internet speed and bandwidth are crucial to both delivering data to and receiving data from patients. To ensure that your internet is both reliable and capable of supporting telemedicine, check with your service provider and see if they can provide you with the bandwidth you’ll need. Your internet provider should be able to configure your network correctly, so it works best with the ‘two-way’ traffic that telemedicine calls require. The influx of uploading and downloading that is necessary when video conferencing requires a sufficient network to support it. Your internet provider should be able to give you solutions that will help you to maintain a higher level of network reliability without spending enormous amounts of money on networking equipment and services.

3. Digital Medical Scopes and Other Accessories

Digital stethoscopes are the functional, high-tech tool that telemedicine has been waiting for. The digital stethoscope works by using the microphone on the patient’s device to capture and stream audio files to the provider. This requires very little from the provider except for a pair of high-quality, over the ear headphones, and allows them to analyze the audio data in real-time. If providers and their facilities wish to keep these audio files for future study or reference, they may want to consider investing in a HIPAA-compliant network file storage system.

4. Tablets

Tablets are the perfect tool for any healthcare facility to invest money in. They are incredibly versatile, which makes it easier to adapt to any practice with just the download of an app or hardware purchase. Providers can use the tablet as an advanced clipboard, allowing them to take detailed notes that are transferred efficiently to an electronic health record system. Many digital health accessories, such as the digital stethoscope, have apps that allow medical providers to transmit, store, and then analyze their patients’ data. While a tablet can’t take the place of a PC, it can be a vital tool in the workplace. 

5. Visual Aids

Just as visual aids are used in an in-person visit, they can also have the same use in a telemedicine visit. Common aids such as pain scales, portion size guides, can help ensure that telemedicine visits run smoothly, efficiently, and quickly. For visual aids to be useful in telemedicine, they need to be large and clear enough to see in a video chat window or be shared through a digital screen-share in their digital form. These familiar aids can help to act as reminders that telemedicine, while it may be new, can be just as useful as a traditional appointment.

Are you considering Telemedicine? Contact a team member at MedCare Staffing today and let’s start the conversation.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

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With all of this available technology and resources, patient self-diagnosis is often riddled with inaccurate information, according to a 2015 study from Harvard Medical School. Researchers tested this by entering symptoms into online symptom checkers and found that only 34% of the time, these programs yielded an accurate diagnosis.

Many providers’ first reaction is to dismiss a self-diagnosis automatically. Still, the Journal of Participatory Medicine published research that suggests that those patients who self diagnose are more likely to comply with provider care plans. For providers, this is a chance to further engage with their patients, which ultimately leads to better care.

We have provided a few strategies that you, as a physician, can use to help address those patients who self-diagnose on the internet.

Tell Patients to Keep Searching Online

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, providers can mitigate many of the issues that present themselves when a patient self-diagnoses by leaning into the matter. When you encourage them to keep searching online, it helps to validate their want to be in control of their health outcomes. Starting with this bit of mental back and forth helps to create the ability for providers to have much more success with patient self-diagnosis. This, in turn, allows for better conversations during examinations and deeper levels of trust. You can also encourage patients to dive deeper into their self-diagnosis so it can become more accurate and hopefully cause less unnecessary worry.

Provide Patients Reliable Resources for Self Diagnosis

If your patients are going to self-diagnose, then the best thing for providers to do is to help direct them to websites that can provide them with websites that can give them credible medical information. Sites that you could suggest may include  The Mayo Clinic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. These websites help by offering a combination of accurate and easy to comprehend information. The National Library of Medicine also has a full page of links on how to find and evaluate health information online. Offering these beneficial resources helps to decrease the likelihood that a patient receives the wrong information.

Encourage Patients to Discuss Their Research

The final thing you can do to address patient self-diagnosis is to encourage those same patients to discuss their research with you during their exam. This is an excellent opportunity to provide care for what a patient believes they are going through and helping guide them through their anxiety and confusion. Doing this helps to counter any diagnosis that a patient has done that could be misleading, comes from a questionable source, or inaccurate. When having these types of open and honest conversations, you can foster more trust from patients who self-diagnose, in turn allowing them to rely more on your medical advice. 

Handling patients who self-diagnose requires a shift in mindset. By embracing patients who choose to take an active role in their care, you are creating strategies that increase communication and education. This connection with your patients helps prevent issues and provides them with the security that you have their care in mind.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

The post Self-Diagnosing Patients. How to Deal With Dr. Google appeared first on Medcare Staffing.

An article posted on Care Innovations website says, “Take, for example, the escalating patient demand for virtually-delivered care. In 2017, a patient survey found that two-thirds of healthcare consumers would prefer seeing a doctor via virtual visits — a finding that takes on added importance given that the same percentage of patients say they’ve put off seeking care in the past for a variety of reasons such as convenience and cost.”

Stuart Pologe, COO of Night Nurse, which helps to provide telephonic triage services in 37 states across the U.S., suggests that remote care has become more accepted by patients and others due to the shortage of providers in some areas. Telehealth has helped to bridge that gap.

“Access to care needs to be more universally available, whether in the city or rural [setting],” says Pologe.

Thomas Davis, MD, FAAFP, a consultant based in St. Louis, has added that telemedicine has the potential to increase a physician’s overall productivity. “I can treat more than twice as many acute patients per hour in a telemedicine practice as I can in the office,” Davis said.

Noticeable trends in telehealth/telemedicine

A recent Harvard public-health study published in a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association discovered that among members of one particular health plan, their annual telemedicine visits increased from 0.02 per every 1,000 members in 2005 to 6.57 per every 1,000 in 2017. More than 83 percent of these members lived in urban areas.

“It’s not just for rural areas,” Matchinski agreed. “Telemedicine is used in large metro areas.”

As of 2016, 32 states have passed parity laws, which require proper coverage and reimbursement for telemedicine. The Harvard study found that mental health-centered televisits have increased in areas with no psychiatrists and more comprehensive mandates on parity. Despite this, parity laws have not helped to expand primary care based telemedicine visits.

Kwong has added that the most reimbursed specialty by public programs, including Medicaid, is telepsychiatry.

Research firm, Mordor Intelligence, released an analysis they did of the global telemedicine market share and have forecasted that there will be a compound annual growth of 18.83% between 2018 t0 2023. The report valued the telemedicine market in 2017 at $32,842 million. The drivers of this market include Medicare reimbursement for telehealth claims. 

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has expended reimbursement in the 2019 fiscal year for Internet communication technologies, such as virtual check-ins and various remote evaluation services.  

Vidyo is an embedded video technology company based in Hackensack, New Jersey, and they recently released a study through which it was discovered that more than 75% of 300 health care delivery organization respondents reported that they were currently operating or planning to launch telehealth services soon. Around two-thirds of the respondents to the survey said that they plan to spend 20% or more of their tech budget on telemedicine.

Chief marketing officer at Vidyo, Elana Anderson, said in a release that she fully expects that “2018 will be the year that ‘telemedicine’ becomes standard medicine and mobile or remote access becomes the new normal.”

Anderson has attributed this prediction to patient satisfaction and the timeliness of care provided, along with how efficient telemedicine is along with the high return on investment that telemedicine is showing. 

Addressing specific needs

Kwong reported that on both the state and federal levels that there is a public health telemedicine trend towards addressing the opioid epidemic because of the limited number of professionals that are trained to treat substance abuse disorders. “A lot of policy has focused on counseling and mental and behavioral health,” she said.

The Opioid Crisis Act includes a push for agencies to create rules that are related to prescribing opioids through telemedicine platforms. 

Emergency departments in community-based hospitals often rely on telestroke communication with a neurologist located at a major medical center. Telemedicine services have also been used to help remote victims of man-made and even natural disasters. 

A multitude of professionals, including but not limited to dentists and anesthesiologists, can practice using telehealth. 

“Dentists usually have a dental hygienist with the patient, working the exam camera,” said Kwong, explaining that while patients may be seeing the hygienist for the cleaning portion of the exam, the dentist could be performing the check-up remotely. This helps to ensure that dentists are able to provide services for as many patients as possible. 

Jobs in the field

Kwong has reported that while most of the telemedicine physicians she works with only practice telemedicine part-time, some full-time telemedicine jobs do exist with large providers, such as American Well and Teledoc. Some locum tenens jobs like Medcare Staffing can include a full or part-time telemedicine element.

Opportunities in telemedicine are also available for nurse practitioners, allied professionals, registered nurses, and physician assistants, with various models for oversight and supervision.

With some of the barriers surrounding telemedicine breaking-down and patients is expected to move towards a trend of more remote care, the technology will likely grow in its popularity, thus supporting more jobs.

“This change is coming,” Kwong said.

Are you interested in telemedicine jobs? Please contact a consultant at MedCare Staffing to discuss opportunities today!

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

The post The Growth of Telehealth/Telemedicine appeared first on Medcare Staffing.

The U.S. needs more psychiatrists, especially in some areas of the country. Specialized psychiatrist jobs are often harder to fill, including but not limited to pediatric and adolescent psychiatrists and geriatric psychiatrists, according to a report from the University of Michigan written in December of 2018.

Why is the demand so high?

The report from the University of Michigan noted that the Affordable Care Act is behind this shortage as more people than before have access to behavioral health services. 

Other research articles have shown this trend to be real. Merritt Hawkins’ 2018 review of physician recruiting trends and starting salaries have noted that psychiatrists have been ranked among the most-requested types of physicians searches, and called the shortage of psychiatrists “an escalating crisis.” And a 2017 report on psychiatric professionals shortage from the National Council for Behavioral Health (NCBH) noted that 77 percent of counties are found to be drastically underserved by psychiatrists.

These problems we’re seeing in patient access to behavioral health services are compounded by the fact that around 40 percent of all practicing psychiatrists tend to work in private practice now and typically only accept cash payments. This change in practice puts their services out of reach for many patients, even if they are in an area with a high number of psychiatrists.

Demand for child and adolescent psychiatrists growing

Adult psychiatrists are always in demand and experts have been predicting that the continuous shortage of adolescent and child psychiatrists is expected to grow at an even more critical rate.

A report from The University of Michigan discovered that 9,956 adolescent and child psychiatrists were practicing in the United States as of May 2018, according to the latest data from the American Medical Association Masterfile. Much like other psychiatrists, they were more likely to cluster in highly populated areas, such as parts of the West Coast and the Northeastern U.S.

A map on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) shows a severe shortage in care provided; in these areas, there are 17 or fewer adolescent and child psychiatrists per every 100,00 children under the age of 18.

“Between the oceans, there are not many,” says Kim, who headed the AACAP Task Force on Work-Force Needs from 1999-2001 and served on a steering committee that addressed workforce issues afterward. This means that children who live in rural areas rather than on the more heavily populated coastal cities, along with those who live in lower socio-economic areas, have significantly less access to proper psychiatric care.

Both geriatric and addiction psychiatrists are in high demand currently.
The study authors from the University of Michigan wrote that “Given the current and projected psychiatrist shortages, these high-demand populations will suffer from the uneven geographical distribution of the few specialized psychiatrists in the country”

Solving the psychiatrist shortage

What can we do to solve the growing shortage of psychiatrists and limited access to proper mental health services? Most experts agree that there is not one single solution to this problem.

Increasing the number of new psychiatrists that are being trained, along with adding more residency training positions, will help. Being able to honestly address reimbursement issues that tend to push psychiatrists to move to a practice that is cash-only, or not accepting Medicaid would help to address this issue. Another requirement is to come up with ways in which psychiatric care can be increased in underserved areas.

For now, hospitals and practices are searching for psychiatrists to fill short-term locum tenens assignments and permanent positions. And the outlook for psychiatric jobs remains strong.

Do you have any availability in your schedule? MedCare Staffing is actively recruiting psychiatrists across the nation. We have short-term and long-term locum tenens, as well as permanent opportunities. Feel free to reach out to us anytime! We would consider it an honor to partner with you.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

The post Growing Demand for Psychiatrists in 2019 appeared first on Medcare Staffing.

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People are becoming increasingly more comfortable with merging technology and life, from electronic banking, to online shopping, to reading books digitally. It’s safe to say that pursuing electronic healthcare is naturally the next step.

While a hands-on approach to patient care is still necessary in many cases, the telehealth phenomenon is proving to greatly enhance the traditional medicine practice. Telehealth is the practice of consulting with patients remotely, and in turn providing cost-effective and convenient healthcare to a broader patient base. In fact, this fast growing, multi-billion-dollar industry is projected to grow nearly 14% by the year 2025, according to a study by Transparency Market Research.

But behind the impressive numbers are real people whose lives are being changed.

Patients no longer have to wait weeks or even months in between check-ups and important follow-up appointments. Rural location will no longer stop a patient from receiving specialized care. A lack of education no longer stands between patients and their health.

By joining MedCare Staffing’s Telehealth team, you can be a part of that success!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF TELEMEDICINE FOR PROVIDERS?

1. Earn additional income:

Paying off student loans, saving for your kids’ college, or taking that dream vacation isn’t too far out of reach, and you won’t need a brand new side hustle to make it a reality. Use your experience, education, and passion in your down-time, and get paid for it! Waiting in carline to pick up the kids? Getting an oil change? No plans on a Saturday? Consult with patients and earn extra income. Your dreams are within your reach.

2. Create a better work/life balance:

It’s no secret that being a healthcare provider in today’s fast-paced society has its challenges. Combined with family obligations, extra curricular activities, and personal hobbies, life can seem unmanageable at times. However, being a telemedicine provider can help you create your own work schedule, all while managing your home life and other professional duties. When you join our telehealth team, you can decide how much you want to work. Your involvement can ebb and flow with the demands of your life.

3. Increase your job satisfaction:

While there is certainly a physician shortage, even scarier is the infamous ‘physician burnout.’ The job has become increasingly stressful and political, to a point where healthcare facilities and practices are losing reliable providers. If you feel overworked and undervalued, it might be time for a change. By joining MedCare Staffing’s Telehealth team, YOU will be the driving force behind your availability. Utilize the platform as supplemental income or dive in deep as a full-time freelance physician.

4. Reach and impact more patients:

Imagine the people who go untreated from serious health issues or chronic conditions for one reason or another. Think about the thousands of people in rural or underserved areas who could benefit from virtual healthcare. Whether it be reduced travel time, decreased stress, or just the mere access to a healthcare provider, people are looking for better and more convenient ways to access patient care. This is especially true in cases where patients living in rural areas need a specialist’s care. Quite frankly, these patients are not able to gain the access they need or pay to travel to the given specialist. You could provide that solution for them. You could be the bridge between the obstacle and the solution. Joining MedCare Staffing’s Telehealth team could give you that purpose and satisfaction.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Telehealth is in its beginning stages, and it has already risen to a multi-billion dollar industry. Getting involved at the ground level would help position your own telemedicine trajectory. And since MedCare Staffing is always pursuing new telehealth adventures, being a part of our network would mean more opportunities and potential job flexibility for you. Gain access to our nationwide network, and get started on your future today.

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