What Telehealth Cannot Treat

Medical emergencies

Telehealth is not designed for and cannot safely handle medical emergencies. Symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, signs of stroke, severe bleeding, loss of consciousness, or a serious injury need immediate in-person emergency evaluation, not a video call. If you are experiencing what could be a medical emergency, call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency room right away.

Reputable telehealth providers will direct you to emergency services if you describe emergency symptoms during an intake process, rather than attempting to manage the situation remotely.

Conditions that require a hands-on physical exam

Many diagnoses depend on a clinician being able to physically examine you — listening to your lungs with a stethoscope, palpating your abdomen, checking reflexes, or examining a joint's range of motion. A video call can show a clinician a lot, but it cannot replace the sense of touch and direct physical assessment that many exams require.

If your symptoms are ambiguous or could point to something serious that needs a physical exam to rule out, a telehealth clinician should recommend in-person evaluation rather than guessing based on limited remote information.

Conditions that need imaging or lab work

Diagnoses that depend on X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, blood tests, or other lab work cannot be completed through a telehealth visit alone. A telehealth clinician may be able to order these tests for you to complete at an in-person facility, but the actual testing and, often, the final diagnosis will happen outside the telehealth visit.

This is common for many conditions where symptoms alone aren't sufficient to determine a safe treatment plan.

Procedures and hands-on treatment

Anything that requires physically touching or treating the patient — stitches, injections, physical therapy manipulation, surgical procedures, or removing a foreign object — cannot be done remotely. Telehealth can sometimes help you decide whether such a procedure is needed and direct you to the right kind of in-person care, but it cannot perform the procedure itself.

Certain controlled substance prescriptions

Prescribing rules for certain controlled substances are more restrictive in a telehealth context and can depend on federal and state regulations, as well as the specific medication involved. Some controlled substances may require an in-person evaluation before they can be prescribed. If you have questions about a specific medication, ask the provider directly rather than assuming telehealth prescribing is available.