Doctor visits could be like Uber
Patients can request to see some healthcare providers through a website or mobile app.
Is healthcare going the way of Uber?
Though it may sound farfetched, seeing a doctor could move in that direction if telemedicine gains more acceptance.
Instead of making an appointment in advance and sitting in a waiting room, patients could beam out a request to a group of healthcare providers via a website or mobile app. The first doctor to respond gets the visit, which is then conducted through video conferencing on a smartphone or computer.
“When we think about consumers in 2016, what don’t we do online?” said Dr. Peter Antall, chief medical officer of American Well Corp., speaking this week at a conference in San Diego. “We watch movies. We buy airplane tickets. We buy books. The Uberization of healthcare — accessing practitioners in an Uber- like manner — it sounds crazy. But it’s actually happening.”
Telemedicine services typically charge about $ 50 per online doctor visit. The most common ailments for American Well’s online patients include sinus infections, sore throats, f lu, bronchitis and urinary tract infections.
“We averaged a wait time over the last three years of three minutes to see a doctor,” Antall said.
It’s unclear how many people use such services nationwide, but Gary Capistrant, chief policy officer for the American Telemedicine Assn., estimated 15 million people in the last year.
A web of reimbursement rules and hodgepodge regulations weighs on the industry. Medicare, the nation’s larger insurer, does not pay for telemedicine services for the roughly 80% of beneficiaries who live in urban areas, Capistrant said.
Payments from private insurers vary. Although 29 states mandate that insurance companies cover telehealth visits just as they do in- person appointments, regulations are inconsistent nationwide. In addition, doctors and hospitals in some states haven’t put the technology in place to deliver telemedicine to their patients, Capistrant said.
Changes in reimbursement policies could spark wider adoption. For example, Medicare will begin reimbursing health providers for hip and knee replacements under a bundled payment scheme starting next month. Doctors will get one f lat payment to cover everything from pre- op evaluation to post- surgery physical therapy instead of being paid for each procedure.
“That is a wonderful change that allows for a tremendous amount of innovation,” said Dr. Joseph Smith, chief executive of the San Diego telemedicine company Reflexion Health Inc. “We are leaving this model of everything having its own Medicare code and its own line- item reimbursement to bundling up. That represents a watershed opportunity for innovators to come in and add value.”
Reflexion Health makes the federally approved Vera platform for remote physical therapy. It taps Microsoft Corp.’ s Kinect motiontracking technology to coach hip- and knee- replacement patients through rehab sessions at home. Physical therapists electronically monitor how patients are doing.
“We are at a point where we have the challenge of unsustainable healthcare and an aging demographic that is amplifying the issue,” Smith said. “We need ways to give people better access to healthcare on their own terms.”