In any state, the work of the policymakers and the social institutions should be to bridge the gap between the various sections of the population. An attempt should be made to dismantle the socially-constructed divisions which sanction better opportunities and facilities to some, leaving out the rest.
Healthcare is the basic need and right of every citizen which the state cannot neglect, regardless of a pandemic. California seems to embark upon such a journey of social parity. COVID 19 had opened up conversations about the shortcomings of the healthcare system.
Healthcare providers, as well as the government, needed a plan that does not exclude those who don’t have enough resources and mediums to reach a clinic or a hospital. On March 17th, Governor Gavin Newsom passed the statement about the expansion of the healthcare infrastructure by relaxing policies that interfere with smooth and easy telemedicine services.
Is Telemedicine improving healthcare access?
Telemedicine has become a crucial asset of all healthcare providers in California. The need to allocate clinical services such as consultation and diagnosis to far-off areas have heightened up, especially because of the global change in the society. For the marginalized section such as the rural population, the economically backward, and the differently-abled, telemedicine is a more accessible alternative that eliminates the factor of traveling.
Fortunately, Telemedicine has become widely popular among the beneficiaries. Professors of UCSF, Sara Ackerman and Nat Gleason conducted a study and found out that patients who received telemedicine services through eConsult were as satisfied as those who went for in-person visits to clinics and hospitals.
However, social disparity does not seem to be entirely eliminated. Telemedicine is an accessible alternative only if it is able to break the barrier of technology. Such services also depend on the state and Medi-Cal, California’s health insurance program, for the fact that they do not come up with an additional charge owing to their expansion in 2020.
Where to look for Hope?
With Governor Gavin Newsom issuing laws that allow services such as Doximity, Skype, and Facetime to function without a penalty, the hope is not lost. It gives health care providers the freedom to finally open up doors that were locked due to the conflicting security policies of the state.
These policies supplement the changes made in statutes of Health and Safety code section 1374.14 and Insurance code section 10123.855, which brought better facilities for healthcare-providers of Telemedicine. Along with this, the expansion of California’s Telephone Access Program hints at a collaborative effort towards reaching the patients who are unable to reach out on their own.
The CTAP’s measure is to provide free phones to differently-abled Californians who find it difficult to access telephonic services. This solves the issue that telemedicine would require telecommunication as the first requirement. Their special services make telemedicine more accessible to such a population.
Another ray of hope is brought by nurse practitioners. They are members who have certified qualifications for solving common health problems. Nurse practitioners have increasingly taken up telemedicine. Med-Cal reimburses them for telemedicine costs.
With the pandemic, the responsibility of nurse-practitioners has increased, as they are extensively taught the best ways to keep up with the task of rendering the right services to the right patients.
Through webinars and online meetings, they are being taught the art of communication alongside strategies that can help in learning the ailment and its history better. In schools for nurse practitioners, the online alternatives to every small benefit that patients receive in in-person visits, are taught and practiced.
Nurse practitioners are the ones who are experiencing and bringing the best from this transition in the healthcare system. By fulfilling their individual responsibility, they have become a part of a better and more inclusive healthcare system in California.
While telemedicine must render them some flexibility in their work, it also adds responsibility, especially for experienced nurse-practitioners. Their workload must have quadrupled after this transition.
Improved Health Care Access
COVID 19 has brought some major social changes to the overall social atmosphere by exposing the institutional hierarchy which enables or disables accessibility. Such social changes have made healthcare access an important concern for which laws are constantly legislated and implemented in California.
It is for time to see whether they will lead to permanent erasure of disparity. As of now, the collaborative effort of the government, the CTAP and the nurse practitioners have brought a positive impact in making healthcare far more accessible than it previously was.