LITT: Telehealth

3/18/2025

9 Participants

Partner and Library updates:

Your Health Idaho had one of their best enrollments in awhile, in part because of partnerships with libraries across the state!

Boise Public Library’s telehealth pod has been soft launched and used everyday since

• Promoting as more of a “Tele-appointment Pod”, used for connecting with individuals who are incarcerated, telehealth appointments, cozy private meeting space, and job interviews. Was in recent newsletter as something new.
• Use their calendar reservation page specific for that pod, limited of only 2 hrs, can book 3 months in advance, up to 4 reservations in a row.
• Clear user agreement when reserving and notes there is no medical equipment in the pod. Library decided they didn’t want to be responsible to clean medical equipment.
• City accessibility manager uses a wheel chair couldn’t get in the pod with the big chair that came with it. Traded big chair for a smaller one, but still have larger chair near to swap a needed.
• Had a laptop at first, but their IT swapped out for a desktop with a build-in camera for ease of use. There is also a ring light and headphones.
• Not fully private or soundproof. There is enough transparency to the glass that you can tell if there’s more than one person in the pod. They are not closing blinds at top to further aid in monitoring. A white noise machine sits outside the pod to aid with privacy.

Ada Community Library’s Star branch finally has their pod!

• Almost ready to open, final touches were happening during the call.
• Have had a lot of people using it as a quiet place.
• One of their other reservable rooms is also the book sale room.
• Children working with tutors or on PSR.
• Might only allow a single person at a time, but allow accommodations for people who need assistance

Meridian Library District is waiting for their pod to be delivered

General Discussion & Sharing:

• Access to telehealth providers might be changing for those on Medicare. Legislation authorized an extension of many of the Medicare telehealth flexibilities that were in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency through September 30, 2025.
  • Telehealth Policy Updates
  • Article from the National Law Review, “Sitting Atop a Telehealth Cliff?”
  • Individuals accessing the marketplace are encouraged to work with an agent so they know if telehealth is included/ covered with their policy
• Department of Health and Welfare update – Rachael is still helping on the back end, but has moved to a new role. The new contact is Andrew Lahren, Andrew.Lahren@dhw.idaho.gov.
• A library in Utah got a really positive response promoting their pod for family services, court hearings, legal and family visitations.
• NNLM shared a couple of updates:
  • NNLM’s Reading Club – Through the enjoyment and intimacy of a book club, readers can discuss health and wellness topics important to them and their loved ones as well as discover evidence-based consumer health resources from the NIH National Library of Medicine.
  • There will be at least one more instance of the Telehealth 101 course that will come up on the schedule this spring