Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 7 February 2019

Telemedicine’s challenge: Getting patients to click the app

By TOM MURPHY Doctors have used tele-
Associated Press medicine for years to moni-
Walmart workers can now tor patients or reach those
see a doctor for only $4. in remote locations.
The catch? It has to be a Now more employers are
virtual visit. encouraging people cov-
The retail giant recently ered under their health
rolled back the $40 price plans to seek care virtually
on telemedicine, becom- for several reasons.
ing the latest big company Telemedicine can reduce
to nudge employees to- time spent away from the
ward a high-tech way to job, and it also can cost
get diagnosed and treated half the price of a doc-
remotely. tor’s visit, which might top
But patients have been $100 for someone with a
slow to embrace virtual high-deductible plan. How-
care. Eighty percent of mid- ever, those savings can be
size and large U.S. compa- negated if telemedicine’s
nies offered telemedicine convenience causes peo-
services to their workers last ple to overuse it.
year, up from 18 percent Walmart said it cut the cost
in 2014, according to the for virtual visits to give an-
consultant Mercer. Only 8 other care option to the
percent of eligible employ- In this Jan. 14, 2019 photo, Caitlin Powers sits in the living room of her Brooklyn apartment in New more than one million peo-
ees used telemedicine at York, and has a telemedicine video conference with physician, Dr. Deborah Mulligan. ple covered by its health
least once in 2017, most re- Associated Press benefits.
cent figures show. an in-person visit. mall. “I don’t buy anything an antibiotic. Employers aren’t the only
“There’s an awful lot of ef- “Going to the doctor’s of- online either.” Caitlin Powers tried tele- ones pushing the technol-
fort right now focused on fice is a big event in their But the practice does gain medicine recently after ogy.The drugstore chains
educating the consumer life and something they fans once patients try it. hearing about it through a CVS Health and Walgreens
that there’s a better way,” look forward to,” said Geof- Julie Guerrero-Goetsch has friend. The Columbia Uni- are promoting apps that let
said Jason Gorevic, CEO of frey Boyce, CEO of InSight opened her MDLive tele- versity graduate student customers connect to doc-
telemedicine provider Tela- Telepsychiatry, which pro- medicine app several times was feeling stuffed up tors.
doc Health. vides virtual mental health since first using it about a and worried she might be Some insurers like Oscar
Widespread smartphone services. year ago to get help for a coming down with the flu. Health are offering it for
use, looser regulations and Tom Hill is among that sinus infection. She said her appointment free to customers as a first
employer enthusiasm are crowd. The 66-year-old The Fallon, Nevada, resi- started on time, lasted 10 line of treatment.
helping to expand access from Mooresville, Indiana, dent was skeptical, but she minutes, and she spoke by Boyce said people also like
to telemedicine, where pa- said he’s never used tele- didn’t have time to go in video with a doctor in Flori- the anonymity of a virtual
tients interact with doctors medicine and has no plans person. MDLive connected da while never leaving her visit.
and nurses from afar, of- to. her to a doctor soon after Brooklyn apartment. Mental health visits were
ten through a secure video “I believe in a handshake she opened the app. She “As a student, I don’t really the most common use of
connection. Supporters say and looking a guy in the said he started asking ques- have time to spend three telemedicine by patients
virtual visits make it easier eye,” said Hill during a re- tions about symptoms “just hours waiting to see a doc- until primary care overtook
for patients to see a thera- cent shopping break at as if I was sitting in a doc- tor, and this was so easy,” that specialty a few years
pist or quickly find help for a downtown Indianapolis tor’s office” and prescribed she said. ago, Harvard’s Dr. Ateev
ailments that aren’t emer- Mehrotra and other re-
gencies. But many still fall searchers found in a recent
back to going to the doc- study of claims data from
tor’s office when they’re a large insurer. Research
sick. firm IHS Markit estimates
Health care experts have that telemedicine visits in
long said that changing the U.S. will soar from 23 mil-
behavior can be hard. In lion in 2017 to 105 million by
telemedicine’s case, pa- 2022. But even then, they
tients might learn about it will probably amount to
from their employer and only about one out of every
then forget about it by the 10 doctor visits, said senior
time they need care a few analyst Roeen Roashan.
months later. Plus emotions MDLive CEO Rich Berner
can complicate health said telemedicine is like
care decisions, said Mer- the digital video recorder
cer’s Beth Umland. TiVo, which took a while
“My little kid is sick, I want to catch on with viewers.
them to have the best of “People were so used to
care right away, and for doing things the other way
some people that might that it just took a little while
not register as a telemedi- to kind of really go main-
cine call,” she said. stream,” he said. “But when
Some patients, especially In this Jan. 14, 2019 photo, Caitlin Powers sits in the living room of her Brooklyn apartment in New it did, it went mainstream
older ones, also just prefer York, and has a telemedicine video conference with physician, Dr. Deborah Mulligan. big-time.”q
Associated Press