Ron Schenone

Is A Virtual Visit To The Doctor’s Office In Our Future?

Posted by on Dec 21, 2009 | 3 Comments

I am not sure if this has to do with the current health care fiasco here in the U.S., but there is a possibility that we can expect a virtual office visit to the doctor some time soon. Optim Health, a division of United Health Group, may be bringing this type of care to us as soon as next year. This was once only talked about but now seems to becoming a reality if this project takes off.

A New York Times article states:

OptumHealth believes NowClinic will improve health care by ameliorating some of the stresses on the system today, like wasted time dealing with appointments and insurance claims, a shortage of primary care physicians and limited access to care for many patients.

But some doctors worry that the quality of care that patients receive will suffer if physicians neglect one of the most basic elements of health care: a physical exam.

Though one could imagine that this type of visit would cut down on the cost of routine care, what liability would the doctor encounter for a false diagnosis over the Internet? If the majority of patients who currently have no medical insurance coverage wish to use this service, how could they if they do not have access to a computer with a Web cam? Are we to expect the poor to go to a public library for a doctor’s appointment?

One can only imagine some poor homeless person dropping their pants in a public library to show the online doc a problem they are having with a private part of their anatomy. :-( Believe me, I do not find the homeless situation nor the health care debacle amusing. What I find amusing is this insanity that the health care providers hope to implement.

Comments welcome.

  • mhz

    I hate to sound cynical all the time, I really do. But….

    The only paradigm I can see (in the US) for an online doctor visit is a free visit to something like WebMD. No official diagnosis, no promises.

    What this group probably will do is re-create WebMD, charge for it, require that you sign a waiver (which probably wouldn’t even hold up in court) and then have a physician tell you that, “You’ll have to come down and get checked out before we can actually give you a diagnosis.”

    However, what could work is if starting your “appointment” online put you into the queue ahead of other who did not do it that way, so that when you arrived, you wouldn’t have to wait long….BUT

    …that would be considered income/class discrimination by those who don’t have access to use the internet from home. Ordering online and then picking up a product at a special counter inside your local Circuit City store is one thing; triage online and then skipping the wait at the clinic would probably be *frowned upon* by those people who are still waiting in line while you walk by, and probably generate class discrimination lawsuits.

    For my part, anything that can cut the wait time from hours down to minutes would be worth a try.

    My last visit was to Emergency Dept at the hospital. I had hit my head hard, and the dentist (who had no trouble fitting me in) recommended I go get checked since I had momentarily lost consciousness.

    I had to wait 8 hours to describe what happened, get briefly looked at, then told I was fine. And thats the hospital WHERE I WORK (in the I.T. Dept.)

    Being around medical care all the time, its my experience that medical personnel pretty much want to leave you in the waiting room long enough to see if any long term damage results. That is the method they use to classify the extent of your injury.

    Anyone who is working to shorten that wait time is alright by me.

  • http://www.total-health-fitness.com Health & Fitness

    Whilst many people are treating themselves quite effectively with home remedies found on the net, a virtual doctor’s consultation for a serious complaint is taking it a bit too far.

    I mean, you could probably find great instructions on the net on how to remove your tonsils yourself, but would you?

  • Rebecca

    No i do not think so