Texas is urging patients to seek remote health care. Some insurance plans won’t pay for it.

Julien Gomez speaks without reservation about how much they value their therapist.

“My mental health services have saved my life,” said Gomez, 27, who uses gender-neutral pronouns. “With everything that’s going on right now, I definitely want to keep seeing my therapist.”

There’s just one problem: Gomez says the COVID-19 pandemic has made in-person sessions at the therapist’s Central Austin office impossible because the therapist has a compromised immune system. But when the therapist suggested they connect via the Internet instead, Gomez said an insurance representative inaccurately told them the plan would only pay the therapist for in-person sessions.

As millions of Texans isolate themselves in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that has killed more than 110 people in the U.S., state officials are working to ramp up the use of telemedicine, which allows patients to talk to health care workers by phone or video chat.

Source: Texas is urging patients to seek remote health care. Some insurance plans won’t pay for it. / The Texas Tribune