Hits & Misses – 2009/02/05
The VA discovers the telephone.
[It] has reduced visits to hospitals by 19 percent and the number of hospital stays by 25 percent.
There are at least four people who can remember almost everything.
Jill Price, author of The Woman Who Can't Forget….feels tormented by her onslaught of memories. She sees daily life in a kind of "split-screen," with present-day events, songs, smells, even TV programs cuing her back to detailed memories that she can't squelch.
Michael Cassara was too busy to visit his doctor's office, so he had his doctor come to him – virtually. Cassara didn't use lasers; he used his laptop. Logging into his account at hellohealth.com, Cassara clicked on the link for video chats and made an appointment, and an hour later, Dr. Sean Khozin popped up on his screen.
Never thought about being able to remember everything. I guess it can be a curse, rather than a blessing.
I like the virtual consultation. It probably would be happening all the time in a consumer driven health care system.
Right on Bret. Also everybody would be using the telephone.
Bret,
As the physician who was featured in the CNN article doing the virtual consult, I agree with you. I have a “cash only” practice but my services are very affordable and I’m able to deliver care at the lowest cost location, such as the video consult that was mentioned in the article. About half of my patients don’t have health insurance, and I represent access to care for them. The other half are insured. They come to me for because I give them a good experience and I’m accessible and they appreciate that. I give them an invoice which they submit to their insurance company to get reimbursed. Not dealing with third parties allows me to lower my overhead tremendously and I pass on most of that saving to my patients.
I’m practicing in a truly market-driven environment and I absolutely enjoy it. So do my patients. I think the doctor-patient relationship, the foundation of delivering effective care, can only be strong where there is no middleman.