Telemedicine Office Visit

During the current pandemic, our office has been mostly closed to seeing patients in the office to decrease the spread of SARS CoV 2 and honor the social distancing and shelter at home. However, we have been offering Telemedicine visits as well as telephonic visits from mid March when the shelter at home order went into place. Telemedicine Visits using secure applications such as Zoom (which we currently use) is currently considered and treated like a regular office visit by most insurance companies and covered. There are obviously limitations in terms of diagnosis and management of some diseases as well as routine physical exams or "wellness visits".

Here are what we are currently using Telemedicine visits for:

• Sick visits (common colds, Rule out COVID, allergies, sinusitis, urinary tract infections, etc). If we need to order tests, we will email or fax the lab requisition to be done at a local laboratory (such as LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics, etc.)
• Weight loss and nutrition consultations (new and follow up)
• follow of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, prediabetes, high cholesterol, etc
• Hypothyroidism consultations
• Medication refills

We are currently NOT using Telemedicine for:

• Routine physical exams or wellness visits
• Preoperative consultations

As the disease is more contained, we are hoping to start to see patients in our office by mid May. 

You may always call our office or use the booking button to make an appointment to discuss your health. We are excited to see you and share our latests knowledge with you.

in health,

Pouya Shafipour, MD

Author

Dr. Pouya Shafipour, MD Pouya Shafipour, MD, in Santa Monica, California, is a board-certified family medicine specialist with subspecialty training in a field of medicine known as bariatric or obesity medicine. He uses safe and effective medications in conjunction with dietary, nutritional, behavioral, and exercise counseling to manage obesity and medical conditions related to excessive weight gain or loss.