Monterey, CA Carmel, CA Telemedicine Growing, But Medicare Fighting The Trend
by Richard Kuehn on 07/17/15
As waiting times getting increasingly long to get in to see a physician and ER visits getting extremely expensive, more and more Americans are turning to services that use Skype to hook up a patient with a doctor for a quick diagnosis and a prescription. Telemedicine services like Carena are multiplying like crazy. Medicare, however, is fighting this trend, strictly limiting the reimbursement rates for electronic doctor visits. The fear is that it's easy to misdiagnose if there is not an in-person visit. Private insurance companies differ in their policies. UnitedHealthcare has said it will cover telemedicine visits for 16 million members by year-end, and 20 million by the end of next year. Clearly this is a rapidly evolving field and with the shortage of doctors this field of medicine is likely to grow.
