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Telehealth visits offer access to doctors during coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic

A physician-owned medical group is providing remote visits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

YARMOUTH, Maine — A physician-owned medical group in Southern Maine is providing telehealth services to its patients for both social distancing and as a way to preserve protective equipment and medical supplies.

InterMed, which has three locations in the greater Portland area has converted 40 exam rooms at their offices in Yarmouth and in Portland into telemedicine suites.

Patients can sign up for visits through InterMed's patient portal. Doctors said they have been doing real-time visits who are suffering from a variety of symptoms, including cough, fever, body aches that could be associated with the coronavirus.

But patients under 60 who are healthy and don't have severe symptoms may not be offered testing. Tests, which are in limited supply, are being made available for older patients who are more at risk.

"If you are over 60 with chronic pulmonary disease you may be tested because if you test positive we may need to call you every day or do something to catch you that before you become too sick and end up in the emergency department,"  said Dr. Scott Patch, a family medicine physician at InterMed.

For more information on how to access telehealth visits via the InterMed patient portal, click here.

This week, Governor Janet Mills issued an executive order that allows out-of-state health care providers to see Maine patients through telehealth without having a Maine license.

For more information go here.

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