As health care costs soared and consumers lives become more hectic, a movement began to create more convenient, and less expensive, methods of treating at least common health conditions. Thus came into being such phenomenon as the retail and drug store clinic, the on-site workplace clinic and the ability to handle health needs by the phone or internet. A study in Health Affairs reports on one such effort, the Virtuwell online clinic run by HealthPartners in Minnesota. (HA Article) The clinic began in 2010 and a patient uses it by signing in and providing information about symptoms, history, etc. A nurse practitioner reviews the information and gets back to the patient usually within thirty minutes or less. In about half the cases the provider may call the patient for more information and eventually will send a treatment plan and can electronically prescribe drugs if needed. People whose condition cannot be handled completely online are referred for an in-person visit. Almost 80 of the users are female and most are aged 24 to 45. The retail cost is $40, and insurance pays for most of the visits. There were significant cost savings. Acute sinusitis, for example, cost about $79 less to treat online. For urinary tract infections, the cost was around $128 less and for all episodes, the cost averaged $88 lower spending. These treatment episodes are not generally additive; about 90% displace an in-person visit that would otherwise occur. There are high rates of customer satisfaction with the service. This kind of innovation appears to offer a real opportunity to reduce the per-unit costs of health care, which is what we desperately need.
✅ Subscribe via Email
About this Blog
Healthy Skeptic Podcast
Research
MedPAC 2019 Report to Congress
June 18, 2019
Headlines
Tags
Access
ACO
Care Management
Chronic Disease
Comparative Effectiveness
Consumer Directed Health
Consumers
Devices
Disease Management
Drugs
EHRs
Elder Care
End-of-Life Care
FDA
Financings
Genomics
Government
Health Care Costs
Health Care Quality
Health Care Reform
Health Insurance
Health Insurance Exchange
HIT
HomeCare
Hospital
Hospital Readmissions
Legislation
M&A
Malpractice
Meaningful Use
Medicaid
Medical Care
Medicare
Medicare Advantage
Mobile
Pay For Performance
Pharmaceutical
Physicians
Providers
Regulation
Repealing Reform
Telehealth
Telemedicine
Wellness and Prevention
Workplace
Related Posts
Commentary
November 28, 2023
There’s a Hole in Uncle Sam’s Arm Where All the Money Goes
A graphic look at the revenue collected by the federal government and how much more…
Commentary
November 28, 2023
Another Survey of Employer Health Plans
More evidence of cost pressures on employer health plans.
Commentary
November 27, 2023
Reading in Minnesota
New laws in Minnesota to address reading declines in schools don't address the real problems.