Posted on 06/10/2015 11:17:53 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Millions of people will be able to see a doctor on their smartphones or laptops for everyday ailments once the nation's largest drugstore chain and two major insurers expand a budding push into virtual health care.
Walgreens said Wednesday that it will offer a smartphone application that links doctor and patients virtually in 25 states by the end of the year. That growth comes as UnitedHealth Group and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem prepare to make their own non-emergency telemedicine services available to about 40 million more people by next year....
Doctors say telemedicine can help improve access to care for many patients, as long as the care is good, a record of the patient visit makes it back to that person's regular doctor and safety isn't compromised.....
Walgreens said the doctors in its program are trained to quickly determine whether a patient needs more care than they can provide during a virtual visit...
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
'If you like you doctor, you can keep your doctor; if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it....." Barack Obama on ACA/Obamacare.
Will these online doctors be in India?
soon enough I’m sure.
Certainly! What could possibly go wrong? /s
How about Cuban doctors, they're bartered around the world - Castro's number one commodity - tens of thousands of them available, to "jump" when Castro tells them to "jump."
Think of it, they already know Spanish and could assist all our new citizens; any payment can be sent directly to Castro and he'll pass along nothing to them.
They can be. Why not? Indian doctors are good. That’s why we have so many of them in the USA
I know tele-medicine is used in radiology and psychiatry quite a bit.
"Please state the nature of your medical emergency."
A picture is worth a thousand words.
bttt!
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“Doctors say telemedicine can help improve access to care for many patients, as long as the care is good, a record of the patient visit makes it back to that person’s regular doctor and safety isn’t compromised.....”
I’ve yet to go to any doctor that even reads the patient information form they make you fill out in their own office. I’m sure they won’t be going through data from someone else, especially if they aren’t being paid to do so.
Excellent points.
I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing depending on the quality of the doctor doing the triage and whether or not you are going to be forced to use a “virtual visit” before being seen in person.
For instance because of my deviated septum, I’m very prone to getting sinus infections when I get a head cold. I’ve had enough of them to know when I have one and when it’s bad enough to require an antibiotic and they always prescribe the same thing. But to get that Rx I have to make a doctor’s appointment to be seen in person but since it’s not deemed an “emergency” sometimes I can’t get an appointment with my doc until a week or two later – so it is either, if left untreated going to get much worse and become an emergency or it’s going to resolve on its own by then but not without a lot of suffering and missed days from work. My only other choice is to go to an urgent care place or the ER and wait and wait and wait to be seen. And FWIW, some insurance plans will not pay for ER visits if it is determined not to be an emergency.
I’m also highly allergic to poison ivy and when I’m exposed I have to be put on steroids and again another in person doctor’s visit that is IMO, not necessary.
I once injured myself while trying to start a gas powered lawn trimmer. I did a stupid thing by putting my arm through the handle to try to get better leverage as it wouldn’t start. I didn’t think much of it at the time but a few hours later, noticed this very big nasty- purple-yellow bruise on my forearm and later a big lump. But what concerned me was that a few hours later my hand was tingling and becoming numb and felt cold. This was on a Sunday evening and I really didn’t want to go to the ER. So I called a local hospital’s “ask a nurse” hotline to help me decided whether or not it was an emergency or something I could treat myself.
I spoke to an RN/ nurse practitioner and she was great. She asked a lot of questions and determined that it was probably a contusion and gave me advice such as to ice the area and keep it elevated, what to look out for and if the numbness continued or got worse to see my doctor the next morning, but then said, “since you are having the numbness and tingling in your hand, my advice is that you should probably go to an urgent care center or ER to have it checked out” which I did. And all they did, after grilling me over and over about how I got the contusion and giving my husband nasty looks as they seemed to think I was lying about how I got it – implying that he was abusing me, after convincing them that this wasn’t the case, all they did was send me home with instructions to ice the area and keep my arm elevated.
It’s a prescription mill that Wallgreens needs and any doc will do.
Thanks CW. And thanks for all the interesting articles you post!
bttt
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