Prescription drugs are an amazing innovation in the medical industry, accounted to saving valuable lives while promoting good health and well-being. In 2015, overall spending on prescription drugs rose to approximately $425 billion and part of the total outlay came from developments in cancer medication as well as the increased number of patients seeking treatment for Hepatitis C.
While we all agree to the importance of prescription medication, the process of obtaining can be quite a hassle in terms of time, causing certain inconvenience. This is when telehealth platforms and online doctor apps come to play, offering a more streamlined process in receiving diagnosis and treatment mostly for common injuries and anomalies. Let’s have a look how it works!
The Prescription Process
Once having been diagnosed and treated by your doctor, you may be prescribed with medicines for continued treatment at home. The process of obtaining a prescription is quite the same except for the communication medium which is online.
The digital prescription is shared by the pharmacy directly with a patient via email as well as text. An online doctor app is likely to carry forward the procedure in a digital platform instead of the old-school manual thing.
Depends on a patient and health insurance, the insurer’s likely to do one of the following just to ensure that you actually received the medication;
- You make a copayment as defined by the health insurance plan
- You receive medication on economic rates while they offer the same benefits and effects as that of prescribed.
- Your insurer has suggested trying a different medication and even if it’s effective, you shouldn’t go with it before the insurance company pay for the medicine originally prescribed by the doctor
- Your pharmacist’s likely to tell about different medications that can be taken and total payment. The decision is based on doctor’s recommendations, costs, and many other factors.
The Online Process
While a doctor’s specialty differs from one another, consultants using an online doctor app are likely to follow a uniform procedure that begins with making an appointment including registration or creating an online account. When that’s done, a doctor’s likely to proceed with video chat or phone call. Here, video appointments are far more effective as a doctor can closely look at the patient and understand certain symptoms.
Some of the doctors providing consultancy online have timed visits that may take more or less 10 to 15 minutes and during the conclusion, you’ll have the condition diagnosed with a personalized treatment plan that may include necessary prescription-based medications.
Are Doctors Allowed Online Prescriptions?
The answer depends on state laws that vary! If an online doctor is licensed by the state and have a successful track record, he can surely write electronic prescriptions and have them shared with both patient and the pharmacy. Even here, some countries don’t permit sharing of the prescription online whereas constantly changing telehealth regulations make things more complicated.
Prescription policies also matter and tend to differ from one consultant to another. Consultants using an online doctor app are unlikely to prescribe various lifestyle drugs that may include;
- Medicinal marijuana
- Stimulants
- Psychiatric medications
- Narcotics
- Sleeping pills and relevant sedatives
Other most common types of medicines that are prescribed via online platform are;
- Antibiotics
- Antifungal creams and medications
- Ant-allergy medicines
- Nasal sprays and
- Birth control pills
Prescription Drug Safety & Online Doctors
It’s obvious that misuse of prescribed drugs or improper dosage may prove disastrous to a patient and sometimes can be lethal. This is one aspect doctors, both on and offline take good care of as nothing’s more important than patient’s safety and well-being.
Even with an online remote prescription, most of the safety standards and precautions are conclusive to actual diagnosis and consultation thereby maintaining safety and efficiency.
Conclusion
Digital medication and consultancy is the latest fad and rather topping the start-up trend in bigger countries including the UK, US, and the UAE. The above details are relevant to prescriptions and whether doctors can write them using online doctor app.
