Book an Online Dermatologist Consultation in South Dakota | Skin & Hair Treatment

A dermatologist is a specialist, which means they have completed a three year dermatology residency program in the USA after they completed medical school. Typically, a doctor that has recently completed their residency program will sit for their board exam and once passing that exam test, can call themselves a board-certified dermatologist. A dermatologist may further sub-specialize, and complete extra fellowship years of study, and pass additional board exams to be further trained in fields such as pediatric dermatology, dermatopathology, and dermatologic mohs surgery.

Patients would seek out a dermatologist for anything related to their skin. Our skin, hair and nails can be an excellent early identifier for a wide range of health issues, even if your skin doesn’t appear to have a specific symptom that you notice yourself. And most everyone can understand that our skin is very easy to examine and evaluate since it’s on the outside of our bodies!

• Any case of severe acne or acne that isn’t responding well to another treatment plan.
• Any suspicious mole or any skin lesion that appears to be changing in any way.
• Any eczema or psoriasis like symptoms of irritated, dry, burning, scaly, cracked and or red skin.
• Age-related skin issues.
• Any hair loss or hair thinning symptoms.
• Any toenail or fingernail issues. For example, a bruise under a nail can sometimes be masking a cancer such as melanoma of the nails.
• Any skin infection you feel you may have.

It’s recommended that you see your dermatologist in-person at least once a year for a comprehensive full-body examination of your skin. As much as possible, we want to catch any skin issues early, even preventing them, when possible, and by coming in once a year, a dermatologist can more easily identify problems early when they are easiest to treat. For patients with chronic skin issues, such as acne or eczema, visits to your dermatologist will be more frequent and ongoing.

Online typically means any form of telehealth, which can be a full, synchronous video conferencing session, or a phone call, or uploading images for your doctor to see, and even as little as securely texting with your physician. A medical consultation usually consists of an initial meeting between a patient and a doctor to identify medical issues and formulate a game plan for treatment. The doctor may order additional lab work or other tests before rendering an initial diagnosis and starting treatment.

Telehealth visits for skin-related issues are often seen by an online dermatologist and most State laws allow for patients to upload photos of their skin issues for the doctor to examine. This type of telehealth is called asynchronous, or store-and-forward. A video call is not required, unless the doctor or patient prefers it. So, a typical workflow for a patient would be to sign-up, complete a short medical intake, upload photos, and wait for the doctor to review them. The doctor may have questions for you, and then diagnose, prescribe any medications, and begin treatment.

Fortunately, quite a lot. Many skin conditions can be evaluated and treated with medications, remotely, such as acne, warts, psoriasis, rashes, eczema, hair loss, nail fungus, and more. These treatment methods allow for telehealth to be used for the patient and doctor to work together to discuss the patient’s skin issues without having to be physically in the same exam room, making it very convenient for both parties.

Yes, our SkyMD doctors prescribe medications for our patients to any pharmacy of their choosing. Many skin conditions can be treated with topical medications, which means prescription strength ointments, gels, and creams, as well as biologics and oral medications, all of which can be ordered from a pharmacy for the patient to pick up.

The short answer is yes, but check with your insurance first. Most health insurances have added telehealth to their covered benefits by now, especially since the pandemic, but check for a different co-payment amount, or any other differences. Most US States have also passed laws to ensure a patient is charged the same for an in-person versus telehealth visit, what are called ‘parity laws’ and they protect both the patient and the doctor that uses telehealth.

First, it’s super easy. At the most, you could take photos of your skin issues beforehand, so you are ready to upload the images to your patient portal, or medical chart. Second, just be ready to discuss your medical symptoms with your online doctor dermatologist, no differently than seeing a doctor in person.

Yes, and no, and it depends. Telehealth is as effective as any in-person visits for many common dermatological skin conditions, like acne. Telehealth should not be used to screen patients for skin cancer though. A patient should be seen in-person for cancer checks so a routine biopsy can be performed if the doctor finds something suspicious. But, most rashes, warts, STIs, hair loss, excessive sweating, and many other skin conditions are very good fits for using telehealth and an effective way to speak with a doctor about those things.

Our SkyMD platform allows patients to submit a visit by uploading photos of their skin issues, without an appointment, which is super convenient for everyone. So, 24x7, any patient can submit a visit for a doctor to review. Separately, we can arrange for a best online dermatologist to be seen by-appointment, at the request of any patient.

With SkyMD, users can expect a quick response from one of our doctors. After submitting photos and answering questions about their medical history, SkyMD's licensed dermatologists typically provide a diagnosis and treatment plan within 24 hours. In some cases, users may receive a response even sooner, allowing for prompt and efficient treatment of their skin condition.

In many cases, online dermatologist consultations are covered by insurance. However, coverage varies depending on the insurance plan and the specific service. SkyMD accepts most health insurance plans, and patients can check if their insurance is accepted on the SkyMD website directly. The SkyMD team will check if your insurance covers the treatment before you submit a visit or move forward to the point of seeing a doctor. We set our patients’ expectations regarding cost up-front so everyone understands pricing before we do any medical evaluation.

Some benefits of an online dermatologist consultation include convenience, accessibility, affordability and privacy. Online consultations can save time and money, as users can avoid the hassle of traveling to a physical clinic. Users can also access dermatology services from anywhere even outside regular clinic hours. Additionally, online consultations provide a more discreet and private option for those who may feel self-conscious about their skin conditions.

SkyMD only employs medically licensed and board certified dermatologists, ensuring high quality service for our patients. From inside the patient’s chart portal, a doctor’s credentials and licensing details can be reviewed.

SkyMD prides itself on providing patients with access to a network of fantastic doctors all across the USA. SkyMD doctors are required to be board certified, have no negative medical malpractice events in their history of practice, and be credentialed with a wide range of hospitals and insurance networks. These quality characteristics help SkyMD differentiate our medical group from the average medical services in the market. When shopping for services, patients must ultimately explore their options to determine which doctors are better for them. SkyMD’s doctors strive to go the extra mile to care for our patients.

Yes, as long as you are a US citizen or resident, and provide us with a valid government ID. SkyMD is currently only offering its services to residents inside the USA. We can support patients while they are traveling across the USA, or even internationally, but only as long as our patients consider their home residence inside the USA. Our medical doctors are licensed to practice medicine by US State, and patients’ home addresses need to be matched specifically to one of our doctor’s US State licenses in order for us to establish care and treat them.

During an online dermatology consultation, the appointment length will be determined by the patient's specific needs. SkyMD asks patients to upload pictures of their skin issues at any time, 24 x 7. Once submitted, a dermatology visit is greeted within a few minutes by our staff and our doctors begin working on the case. Patients should expect our doctors to ask them questions, listen to any questions the patients have, and chat back and forth until everyone is satisfied with the treatment plan. This online conversation can take as little as a few hours to a day or two, depending on the complexity of the case. Our doctors may upgrade the visit to a teleconference video call, as well. Lastly, our patients retain access to their SkyMD doctor for up to seven days if they have additional questions.

Yes. Once you establish a relationship with one of our SkyMD doctors, you will be able to follow up with that doctor ongoing through your patient portal. For every visit, every patient has access to their doctor about that one case for another seven days, and a patient can generally ask any question of our support staff at any time in the future for any reason. For each new skin-related issue, patients would submit a new case for review by their assigned doctor. At times, patients may be reassigned to a different doctor.

Yes. If a new SkyMD patient already knows of or has a history with or has seen a specific doctor on our platform, but outside of SkyMD, and wants to request that same doctor, just contact our support staff to assist you. Our platform is constantly double checking that our licensed doctors are seeing patients only in the states in which they are licensed, so we always want to confirm that our patients can see all the doctors they wish.

SkyMD employs both male and female dermatologists on its platform. Patients are encouraged to select a doctor that suits them once they complete the sign-up process. Patients are welcome to ask SkyMD’s support staff about changing to a different doctor, if possible.

Pricing is simple if you prefer to pay by cash or credit card, meaning you do not want to use your health insurance plan. $99 is the price for a cash-pay transaction, per visit. However, SkyMD accepts a very wide range of commercial, government and HMO/managed health care plans. Our platform allows you to search for your health insurance so we can confirm your eligibility, and our support staff will give you an estimate of the charges. We will send your insurance plan a medical claim and they will in turn process that claim for both of us.

SkyMD charges no cancellation fees, even up to the last minute. We of course prefer for patients to notify us as early as possible if they won’t be able to make their medical visit. Otherwise, we do not apply charges to our patients’ accounts until after they have been seen by one of our doctors.

SkyMD operates like any other private medical practice in that the patient chooses whichever pharmacy they wish to use and our doctors will send the prescription order to that pharmacy on behalf of our patient. We will assist the patient in choosing a pharmacy that is in-network to their health plan and otherwise keep an eye on the medication costs for the patient, but ultimately those choices are between the patient, their insurance plan and their pharmacy.

In short, yes. But, you’ll need the approval of a parent or guardian. SkyMD does see minors for all medical specialties but we do require that any minor have the consent and permission of a parent or guardian and that person would create the original account with SkyMD and then add the minor under that parent or guardian account.

Sometimes. In general, our dermatology patients choose to skip the video call and upload high-resolution images of their skin issues for our dermatologist online appointment. Specifically for specialties like dermatology, telehealth laws do not require video calls. However, at time, it’s better for the patient and their SkyMD doctor to talk in real-time, synchronously, over a video call. Questions can be answered more quickly, and sometimes that’s a better choice, but it’s typically an escalation that has been requested by the doctor for some special reason, too. Most dermatology consults in SkyMD do not require a video call, unless the patient requests it.

Yes, our SkyMD staff works seven days a week. Each doctor’s specific response time may vary a bit but our patients are able to log into their chart at any time and submit dermatology photos, ask questions for our team to review, and otherwise expect a response from us before Monday morning.