Whatever happens with the pandemic, certain aspects of healthcare will forever remain changed. One shift is a subject that we have written about before – the increased emphasis on telemedicine. Some health insurance plans are emphasizing telehealth a first point of contact with providers in building the plans they are offering consumers.
Some insurers are more than embracing the telehealth model: they are offering plans that incentivize or even require online visits for nonemergency primary care. Generally these plans are lower-premium plans. These plans do also cover in-person care – for now. Enrollment includes selecting an online doctor, who will evaluate the patient for referrals for in-person care or referrals to specialists.
These low premium plans will, for example, have no copay for online care, but be balanced out by high patient deductibles for in-person care. One additional selling point for this style of plan is that patients can, in many situations, secure telehealth appointments sooner than in-person appointments.
Some practices are better suited to telehealth than others: many psychologists and therapists, for example, continue to see their patients online exclusively. Any visit that requires a blood draw or labs, however, would need to be in-person, at least partially. Telehealth is also no replacement for many in-person visits; a recent study found that approximately 66% of primary care visits require in-person care. There is simply no way for a provider to check your reflexes remotely, for example.
Some plans try to bridge the gap, however, by sending kits with blood pressure cuffs and thermometers. But home use of these devices has a higher likelihood of user error – and of being lower quality than those used in medical offices.
One concern with emphasizing virtual-first healthcare is that many of these providers are not even local – they may be practitioners practicing remotely, but holding medical licenses in several different states. Ensuring no balls get dropped with these providers requires a robust electronic health records system that both ensures the provider has access to the patient’s medical records and also allows efficient transfer of information from the remote provider to the patient’s referring provider. And that requires putting a lot of faith in systems that have their host of problems.
