3 Things You Can Expect at Your Telehealth Appointment with a The Right Time Provider

When the coronavirus began to spread in early 2020, several The Right Time health centers started offering telehealth (or telemedicine) appointments (and some expanded existing services) to make sure patients didn’t lose access to free or low-cost birth control while social distancing guidelines were in effect. Now, nearly all The Right Time health centers offer telehealth appointments.

If you’ve never had a telehealth appointment before, you might feel nervous or have questions about talking to a provider in a new way. We want you to feel comfortable using telehealth services, so here’s what you can expect from this kind of appointment.

1. A provider who will listen to you.

The main goal of all the providers at your nearest The Right Time health center is to make sure you get the method of birth control that best meets your needs and preferences. To do this, they will take the time to get to know you by asking you questions and listening very carefully to the answers you provide. They do not get this information from you to judge you in any way or question any decisions or choices you may have made in the past. Instead, this information will help them better understand what you need from your birth control so they can talk to you about the methods that are most likely to meet your expectations.

2. Complete confidentiality

All of the providers at your nearest The Right Time health center take your privacy seriously, and everything you tell them during your telehealth visit is completely confidential.

Need a little more info to feel comfortable? There’s a U.S. federal law that gives you control over your health information (it’s called HIPAA) and it has a section about doctor patient-confidentiality which says your provider cannot share your health information with anyone without your permission. In fact, providers cannot even disclose that you were a patient of theirs because doing so is a violation of the Privacy Act, and they could lose their medical license.

If you are still concerned about your privacy, we recommend that if at all possible, you take the telehealth appointment somewhere you can be by yourself, like maybe in your bedroom with the door shut or in your parked car.

3. Help with choosing a method of birth control that’s right for you.

Since there are so many different types of birth control on the market today, it might seem difficult or overwhelming to try and figure out which one is right for you right now. But you do not have to go through that process alone—the providers at your nearest The Right Time health center are there to help you figure it out. As we’ve mentioned before, the average person tries three different types of birth control before they find the one that works best for them, and The Right Time providers are dedicated to working with you for however long as it takes for find your method.

Updated July 2021