N.Y. Health Insurers To Offer Virtual Doc Visits

CWmike writes "Two insurance organizations in upstate New York said on Wednesday that they will offer their members and employers virtual physician visits beginning this summer, making New York the fourth state to provide these types of services. BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, BlueShield of Northeastern New York and technology services provider American Well said the Online Care service will allow members to talk with physicians in real time through a private online chat network or through a voice-over-IP phone call. The service also offers video chat and instant messages. Members can sign on to the insurer's Web sites and look for physicians who are available online in various specialty areas."

Comments

Coming next:

[jgreco]

Outsourcing doctors offshore.

Re:Coming next:

[i.r.id10t]

Actually, it is already being done with digital images from cat scans and such that are sent via internet from rural hospitals and doc-in-a-box places to larger facilities for specialized "reading" and consultation. Assuming something was worked out with licensing and board exams I don't see outsourcing stuff like that to $other_place as much more than a change in the destination IP address.

Re:Coming next:

[Steauengeglase]

Good Lord, why should be it cheaper? There is equipment to be paid for and technicians to make sure the equipment is operational; probably some extra coverage for "e-Malpractice". Of course you won't actually get to see a doctor, just another over-worked nurse practitioner; only now they'll have to sit in a cube for 9 hours a day.

Turn-over will begin to go up in that area as the whole thing turns into "medical help desk". I couldn't imagine the horror of getting pestered for 9 hours a day by octogenarians and hypochondriacs about every pimple and scratch on their body. Not that it matters, the practice bills by both the call and the minute, there are 40 people in que and your sup is complaining about your response times. You pray each day that your practice will get bought out by one of the big boy managed health organizations, because they actually put into your 401k, unlike these organ grinders.

Re:Coming next:

[houghi]

You think that is bad? Wait till they replace 90% of the people with an IVR. Press one if you are sick. Press 2 if you had an accident. Press 3 if you are pregnant. Press 4 ...

A few buttons pressed and your appendics will be removed instead of your tooth.

Re:Coming next:

[daem0n1x]

You have unemployed doctors? In my country (Portugal) it's very hard to get an MD degree, and getting one is like a licence to print money.

But our system costs a huge lot less, and the coverage is universal. Someone is being ripped off.

So, where does all that money go? I guess to the middle man (insurance and healthcare corporations).

Re:Coming next:

[InsaneProcessor]

One only needs to look at things like this and realize that if the customers are complaining about costs and features, the private sector will respond.
What about that doctor in NY that tried $79 a month for all the visits you want. The government stopped him because he was acting like insurance. Get the government out of the way and the private sector will make health care more affordable and available.

Standard Fee

[Ipeunipig]

I'm curious as to how much will be billed back through insurance. You have a standard fee just for going in to the office to see the doctor, now that the office is not being used how much of a 'discount' will you see.

Re:Standard Fee

[natehoy]

I'd probably pay the standard fee just for the opportunity to talk to an actual MD. I met my doctor once. Once. She's been my primary care physician for 5 years now, I've been in the office 5 times for routine physicals and 2-3 times for specific issues, and the only time I ever saw her was when I went in for a biopsy. She watched as an intern did the biopsy.

Re:Standard Fee

[guruevi]

Most likely none. You will still have to pay your $20 co-pay or pay up until you meet the deductible full charge. The insurance company however will have reduced rates for these types of service provided by their doctors. So they will be billed less ($100 instead of $500) and they will be able to generate more money. Next thing they're going to start staffing their own 'doctors' (probably med students that just finished school) on an hourly rate with a 6 months turnover (so they won't have to provide benefits) and later some manager is going to find out that doctors in India charge 300 rupees instead of 300 dollars per visit.

Don't mix it up with Chat Roulette...

[Dr_Barnowl]

"Please present the affected body part to your webcam."

Re:Don't mix it up with Chat Roulette...

[daid303]

As some people would pay to watch it, it could pay of your health bills.

Conflict of interest

[Anonymous Coward]

First-contact doctors working directly for the insurance company sounds like a bit of a conflict of interest.

Even if you trust in them not to be simply bought off, their jobs may depend on how much their instructions cost. Dr Caring who believes suspect lumps should be biopsyed every time just to make sure they aren't cancerous is unlikely to have as long a term with the company as Dr Casual who tells the patients to just wait two weeks and see if it goes away on it's own.

Re:Conflict of interest

[OrwellianLurker]

In most states doctors are paid by insurance companies to prescribe xx% generic drugs out of all drugs prescribed.

Just wait until they outsource it...

[Turzyx]

Although this certainly sounds more sophisticated, the UK NHS offers an 'over the phone diagnosis' service, NHS Direct. Although the article mentions 'physicians' being used to monitor the network, how long will it be until they too are using unqualified staff to handle more routine cases?

The danger for misdiagnosis is huge, although they no doubt have a clause somewhere about it - they may just end up telling patients to visit their doctor in person for a proper check-up, which kind of defeats the object.

Re:Just wait until they outsource it...

[CastrTroy]

Ontario (in Canada) has a hotline you can call to get help. It's staffed by registered nurses, not doctors. However it works pretty well, because the point of it is really to tell you if you should just to direct you to the next point of care. Be it the emergency room, walk-in clinic, family physician, or just a little bed rest. Nurses are perfect qualified to at least direct you to where you should be going after hearing the symptoms, and it's a lot cheaper than having doctors on the phone. I think the main point of it was to keep people from going to the emergency room simply because they had a cold. Which happens way more often then it should.

a/s/l

[psnyder]

The service also offers ... instant messages.

Dr: a/s/l?
Dr: to help me diagnose

all well and good...

[Em Emalb]

but also a waste of time in a lot of cases. Case in point, my in-laws, who go to the doctor if they stub their toes.

I'm only slightly exaggerating, any little thing and off they go. It's unreal. If they knew about this, I'm sure they'd have a lot more "afflictions" to get "treated" by these doctors.

Sad.

Awesome

[CODiNE]

Hypocondriacs of the world REJOICE!!

Dr Eliza

[L4t3r4lu5]

Eliza: Hi, I'm Dr. Eliza. How can I help you today?
Patient: Hi, I have a pain in the left of my chest. It's quite bad.
E: I'm sorry to hear that have a pain in the left side of YOUR chest is not feeling well.
P: Yeah... Uhh, do you know what it could be? It's getting worse.
E: I understand.
P: You understand what? My left arm is starting to feel funny.
E: Your problem is arm feel funny?
P: No, my problem is my chest! It's really painful, I can hardly breathe!
E: You can hardly breathe and your left arm is feel funny?
P: yes
E: I like this conversation! Do you like this can hardly breathe and your left arm is feel funny?
E: Hello?

Re:Dr Eliza

[tsalmark]

That may be the Idea, cheaper than having the patient actually see a Doctor. The Idea of a health insurance company also being responsible for deciding your health care seems very wrong to me.

The program begins

[Kingrames]

When the process begins, the doctor says, "Please state the nature of your medical emergency."

Re:Is the insurance fee virtual too?

[ctrl-alt-canc]

No, only the insurance refund is virtual :-(

Re:No office fees now?

[ColdWetDog]

Does this also mean the end of the patient-gouging $75 office visit fee?

Of course not, how can you be so strange? Real visits are going to be "premium" experiences and will now cost $150.

This is Capitalism man, get with the program!

Just another way to increase profits

[Thaelon]

How is this any better than a phone call?

The doctor still can't palpate anythying, nor even make a good visual examination since the quality is likely too poor to be of any use.

Answer? It's cheaper for the insurance company than a real doctor visit, and so saves them money, and you get inferior care for it, while they get increased profits.

Don't let them spin this as something good for you, it's just another way to reduce costs (and this time, care quality too).