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Re: Insurers Begin To Reimburse for Online Visits, Concerns RemainFrom: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Tue Feb 5 12:59:04 2008
The Downside of Virtual Medicine ... Traditionally, the biggest obstacle to online consultation was the fact that insurance companies didn’t reimburse doctors for web-based work. But recently Aetna and Cigna, two of the nation’s biggest insurers, have agreed to reimburse doctors for online visits. Other big dogs in the insurance world are likely to follow suit soon. With these changes, the anatomy of the web-doc industry is beginning to come into focus. For online consultation to be reimbursed by insurers, paperwork needs to be filled; for doctors to have a booming Internet practice, they need a strong online presence. To help with both of these matters, new companies have entered the fray, with cookie-cutter names like RelayHealth and Medem (“medicine” + “modem”; genius!). ... Right off the bat, it’s clear that the only physicians who will sign up for these online consultation services are those who can afford to shell out an extra $400 a year. This may not seem like that much, and doctors could make this money back by charging their patients for the service--particularly if they can charge whatever they want for an online consultation. But this isn't true for doctors who serve low-income populations. For them, online consultation is a poor investment. 80 percent of all US households have at least one computer, but just 58 percent of those with annual household incomes under $30,000 have a computer at home. Take into account the fact that doctors who serve Medicaid patients are already subjected to alarmingly low reimbursement rates--and the fact that primary care salaries are on the decline—and you can see that doctors who serve the poor don't have the wiggle room to incur another sunk cost. http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2008/02/the-downsides-o.html#more Read the whole thing. Art
At Tue, 5 Feb 2008, R. Daniel Braun wrote:
>
-- art fougner, md "May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
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