How Telehealth Is Helping With ED Treatment

October 20, 2020

4 mins

Slowly, patients and doctors have realized that many common afflictions – like the flu, nausea, rashes and more – don't always need to be assessed by a doctor in person. With easy-to-use video conferencing technology like Zoom, Skype, and even Facetime, doctors can talk to their patients and actually see what's troubling them without meeting at an office. Telehealth (sometimes called telemedicine interchangeably) is transforming how mild issues are diagnosed and treated while saving patients and doctors time and money. 

Telehealth is helping guys get ED meds online, too.

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How Telehealth Works

Telehealth is the delivery of health care remotely. The definition is broad, but innovation is happening everywhere with the advent of better and faster connected technologies. 

Telehealth has its roots in rural America, and with technology from NASA(!). NASA had, of course, some experience delivering healthcare to people a long ways off – astronauts in space – which morphed into more experimentation on the ground. In the late '70's, the Papago Tribe, the Lockheed Missile and Space Company, the Indian Health Service, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare explored using technology to improve healthcare in a remote Papago population in Arizona. The project was called STARPAHC (Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Health Care), and it was one of the first projects to provide medical care to remote populations.

That's been simplified since, and now telemedicine might include a diagnosis with a doctor by video chat; it could be a discussion with a therapist by phone; it could be remote technology that records a patient's heart rate; it could be a questionnaire that helps a physician make a diagnosis; or it could be using an app to monitor milestones during a pregnancy. 

More recently, telehealth has evolved to fit the unique needs of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., with policy changes reducing barriers to access and promoting telehealth uptake. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) took aggressive action in 2020 to expand the types of health care practitioners that could bill CMS for remote work, and to allow for audio-only communications between patients and physicians rather than requiring video with every call.

As telehealth is a broad catch-all term, we'll focus on a few facets here that are particularly relevant to Rex MD.

Using Rex MD For Erectile Dysfunction Meds Online

Rex MD is a men's health company that connects men with doctors to get the right ED diagnosis and the right prescription for their concerns. Erectile dysfunction is where it all started. Why? Over 50% of men will be affected by ED during their life. With every decade of age, the number of men with ED goes up by 10% according to some figures – 40% of 40-50 year-olds have ED, and 60% of 60-70 year olds. 

It's remarkably common, but most guys don't want to go to the doctor. Talking to a doctor about ED isn't fun, and what if you run into someone you know at the pharmacy picking up your Viagra prescription?

For that reason, helping men get the aid they want from the comfort of their own home, and with medications shipped to their door in discreet packaging, can be an incredibly powerful tool in combatting ED.

Can You Get Viagra From Telemedicine?

Ordering erectile dysfunction medications online used to be a non-starter. Out of desperation, men would try all sorts of "natural" products, which either had no effectiveness or contained trace amounts of real medications (like sildenafil/Viagra) that helped them work but with unknown purity and safety. Safety was a big issue, and ordering ED meds online during the '90s and early '00s was a crapshoot, and dangerous to boot.

Today, that's changed. With telehealth platforms like Rex MD, ordering ED meds online in the USA is possible, safe, and affordable. We hear from customers all the time who dealt with ED for years, and Rex MD was their first foray into ED medications, which work for almost 90% of men who try them. They all say the same thing: "I wish I had gotten help sooner."

At Rex MD, men fill out a medical questionnaire with their online order, after which a physician can evaluate their situation and schedule a phone call or video conference call to confirm and discuss. If approved, the physician can write a prescription and have the medication shipped within about a day. 

What is Store-and-Forward Telemedicine?

This approach is often called "Store-and-Forward" or asynchronous telehealth, and it's largely how Rex MD does medicine. In this case, patients fill out a secure questionnaire around their medical background, history, symptoms, and more. That information is stored for a physician to review at a later time, after which the patient and doctor can connect by phone or video conference to discuss their situation. 

This process shortens the virtual visit and helps the physician get a better sense for the patient's background before meeting them by phone or video. 

Does Telehealth Work With Insurance?

Insurance companies can be finicky about telehealth services, and the large players have varying policies. Medicare Part B, which covers most of the U.S. population over the age of 65, has been slowly improving how they handle and pay for telehealth services. As with most coverage under part B, the patient typically pays 20% of the cost. According to Medicare.gov, some healthcare providers are waiving the amount that the patient pays for telehealth visits. 

Can You Get Viagra With Telemedicine?

With the release of more generic versions of popular erectile dysfunction medications in recent years, men ordering ED meds from the internet aren't limited to Viagra alone. Cialis (tadalafil), Stendra (avanafil), and Levitra (vardenafil) are all popular and obtainable with a prescription. And they're cheaper than ever thanks to generic versions of most of these offerings and their doses. 

Telehealth is now just as widely accepted as an in-person doctor's visit when it come to getting ED medications – Viagra is no longer the stuff of the dark web alone.