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E-Visits To the Doctor To Top 75 Million In the US, Canada This Year

Posted by timothy on from the billing-codes-had-to-catch-up dept.

Lucas123 (935744) writes "Telehealth medicine, or communicating remotely with patients through electronic means, will be used by nearly one in six North Americans this year, according to Deloitte. With an aging Baby Boomer population and a growing shortage of primary care physicians, electronic visits (eVisits) reduce both time and cost in treating common ailments. The overall cost of in-person primary physician visits worldwide is $175 billion. Globally, the number of eVisits will climb to 100 million this year, potentially saving over $5 billion when compared to the cost of in-person doctor visits. Last November, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) revamped its patient portal, renaming it MyUPMC, and rolling out AnywhereCare, offering patients throughout Pennsylvania eVisits with doctors 24 hours a day, seven days a week either over the phone or through video conferencing. The service offers a 30-minute or less wait time and saves the hospital system more than $86 per patient over a traditional visit."

2 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Re:so how does it work for illnesses? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With amazing modern technology you can, in the comfort and privacy of your very own home (certainly with more comfort and likely more privacy than a typical clinic) take your temperature, pulse, blood pressure and oxygenation. The whole kit would cost less than $100. While it is true that the physical exam is often important, in reality it's a smallish bit of the diagnostic tree. Certainly telemedicine can't solve every issue, but then again, neither will a visit to a doctor's office.

    Just one more change in medicine. Next up: You won't really be seeing a doctor (or nurse) on the screen. Just an avatar and a script.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. BS by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

    This article is total nonsense:

    Electronic visits or telemedicine is comprised of electronic document exchanges, telephone consultations, email or texting, and videoconferencing between physicians and patients.

    So you call your doctor: "please refill my cholesterol pills"
    That counts as an evisit.
    Your doctor sends you message: "Your test results are in"
    That counts as an evisit.

    The summary makes it sound like there were 75million video conference visits... which is not even remotely the case.