Telepsychiatry is a growing frontier in mental health, where psychiatrists are in short supply and stigmas abound. This evolution is helped by Medicaid coverage and a majority of states that require private insurers to cover telemental health services, regardless of delivery method.
Most weeks, from his office at UC Davis, Dr. Peter Yellowlees uses videoconferencing technology to hold telepsychiatry clinics on Indian Health Reservations. At the end of each clinic, Yellowlees, the president-elect of the American Telemedicine Association, and his patient will be joined, in person, by the patient's primary care physician for a brief discussion.
This type of care—with two doctors consulting each other and a patient at once—is all but unheard of in traditional psychiatry practice, where one patient's doctors could be in different cities or states. But it's possible through telemedicine.
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