The
new world of consumer-driven healthcare is opening up
many opportunities for people to save money on their
medical expenses. As more people carry high deductible
plans in conjunction with health savings accounts, medical
providers are beginning to compete for that business
in a variety of innovative ways. One way many people
are saving money on doctor visits is through telephone
consultations.
Many
times an expensive doctor visit could be avoided if
you could just talk to the doctor to discuss the situation
over the phone. If you could do a quick email exchange
and have a prescription waiting for you at the pharmacy,
you could save time and money, and let the funds in
your Health Savings Account continue to grow for your
retirement. There are now online physician consultation
services that allow you to do just that.
While
an ER visit may indeed treat medical needs, the reality
is that most visits end up being more about peace of
mind. If your child's skin is turning red in the middle
of the night, you might not know if it's harmless flushing,
or a serious allergic reaction. So you rush off to the
emergency room, fill out some forms, and sit in a room
full of contagious people. You wait and wait, finally
get to speak to a nurse, then wait some more, and explain
your problem again to the resident. Then you may have
a battery of tests done, wait some more, and finally
leave with a prescription and a bill for $650.
All
this for a problem that could have been far less expensive,
and handled more simply and expediently by discussing
the situation with your doctor. According to the American
Medical Association, about 70% of doctor and emergency
room visits are actually just informational.
However,
asking your doctor a health question is rarely as easy
as picking up the phone. Because insurance companies
do not normally reimburse doctors for phone care, most
traditional practices avoid offering such service. Instead,
their objective is to get you into the office so that
you can be billed for the service you receive.
Paying
for that office and the surrounding bureaucracy is not
cheap. A doctor's costs may include the office itself,
a receptionists, a triage nurse, someone handling insurance
billing, office managers, and expensive medical equipment.
All this is very expensive to maintain, so generating
as many office visits as possible is critical for most
doctors to even stay in business.
So
you get stuck in a system that is inconvenient, expensive,
and does not value your time.
Telephone
Consultation Services
As
health savings accounts become more popular and more
people are paying for their own doctor visits, several
companies have begun offering inexpensive telephone
and email consultations with board-certified physicians.
These companies can offer dramatically lower prices
because they have cut out most of the costs that burden
traditional medical facilities.
Though
telephone consultations are obviously not appropriate
for all medical conditions, it is an accepted standard
of care for many health-care problems. In fact, telephone
medicine has been around as long as the telephone, and
is practiced throughout the country by most doctors
at nights and on weekends.
Here
are a few companies that are now offering telephone
consultations with licensed physicians:
-
Doctor
on Call (www.unadoctoroncall.com).
This company currently has over 240 board-certified
physicians on call, with 24-hour access. The physicians
with this service will not diagnose or prescribe,
but they will provide information based on your
questions. The price is a bargain - only $5.95/month
for the family for an unlimited number of calls.
-
TelaDoc
Medical Services (www.teladoc.com).
This company also provides 24-hour access to members
and dependents age 12+. Telephone medical consultations
are with primary care doctors who can also diagnose
medical problems and prescribe appropriate medications.
There is an initial $18 registration fee, and a
monthly fee of $4.25 for an individual or $7 for
a family. Consultations are a flat $35.
-
Doctokr
(www.doctokr.com)
is a practice run by Virginia physician Alan Dappen.
Though this service is only available to people
who can come in to his office for an initial visit,
it is a model likely to be copied by other providers
as consumers become more price conscious when shopping
for medical care. 24-hour access is available by
telephone and email. Consultations are billed in
5-minute increments ranging in price from $15 to
$22.50. A simple consultation to request medication
refills costs from $10 to $15 for up to 5 medications.
There is a monthly fee of $5.95.
Saving
You Time and Money
Not
only will these services save you money when compared
to a typical doctor visit, but they will also save you
time. You may be able to quickly resolve routine medical
issues in a fraction of the time you would spend accessing
care from urgent care facilities, emergency rooms or
physician offices. If you use a service that will prescribe
medications, you could have your consultation finished
and the medicine in hand in less than the time it would
otherwise take just to visit the doctor. As telephone
technology evolves, these services will add picture
taking and even recording vital signs, and the scope
of these physician consultations will become broader.
With doctor visits approaching $100 each and ER visits
in excess of $800, it doesn't take much to justify the
small monthly fee for most of these services.
Though
there are certainly times when visiting your doctor's
office or the emergency room is the most appropriate
thing to do, as a smart consumer you owe it to yourself
to be aware of all your options. Using a physician telephone
consultation service can help you avoid the expense,
time, and hassles of urgent care facilities, emergency
rooms, and visits to the doctor.
By
Wiley
Long - President, HSA
for America - The nation's leading independent
health insurance firm specializing in HSA-qualified
Plans that work with Health
Savings Accounts.
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