The consumer-directed health care world is buzzing these days about the concept of consumer engagement. Much has been written and said about the best ways to educate people about the health care system, how it works, and how they can be taught to make better decisions that will reduce spending. It's an awesome task.
Or is it?
While carriers can manufacture plan designs that give the member more responsibility for paying for routine care, they are unlikely candidates to actually change the health care purchasing habits of their members. For the most part, health plans have been strictly wholesale. Their customers are the brokers who sell the plans and the employers who buy them – not the end user.
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This idea of consumerism is new territory for most health plans. Retailers, on the other hand, understand exactly how to bring consumerism, low cost and convenience to the health care marketplace without all the education and training.
OptumHealth has tapped into the retail savvy of drug store giant Rite Aid announcing they would be the first to provide "Virtual" Clinics in a retail pharmacy setting. Rite Aid customers in the greater Detroit area will have access to NowClinicSM Online Care services available inside select Rite Aid pharmacies. NowClinic connects Rite Aid customers in real-time to convenient medical care, information, and resources from doctors and OptumHealth nurses.
Some other carriers are also showing interest in online care. In June, WellPoint, Inc., the nation's largest health benefits company by medical membership, announced that it is collaborating with American Well™ to support and deploy American Well's Online Care platform, which will allow WellPoint to make Online Care services available to members of its affiliated health plans. This is the same technology being used to power NowClinic at Rite Aid.
WellPoint said its plans are to build an Online Care provider network, with the goal of launching the program in select markets, yet to be determined, in the fourth quarter of this year.
Also using the American Well technology, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York said last November that it would be the first in the Northeast to offer online care.
In announcing the program, Cynthia Eberl, director, physician outreach said, "Online Care isn't intended to replace office visits or urgent care, rather this service is a convenient alternative for people like busy parents who need advice from a pediatrician or college students who are away from home. This revolutionary service allows them to have personal conversations with a doctor using a private, secure connection."
While online consultations are more convenient and less costly than face-to-face office visits, insurance reimbursement may not be keeping pace. In the case of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, Online Care NY is not a covered benefit but the cost of a 10 minute consultation with a primary care physician is only $25.
Based in Boston, American Well was founded in 2006 by Drs. Roy and Ido Schoenberg and through its Online Care Suite connects providers and patients for live, immediate, and clinically meaningful encounters using the Web or phone.
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