Tag Archives: Virtual Visits

SSM Health is offering $25 virtual visits to all Wisconsin, Missouri residents

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/telehealth/ssm-health-is-offering-25-virtual-visits-to-all-wisconsin-missouri-residents.html?origin=rcme&utm_source=rcme

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St. Louis-based SSM Health is upping the ante for providers in Wisconsin and Missouri by offering all residents — established patients or not, health insurance or not — $25 virtual visits within an hour of requesting an appointment.

The service will be available Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Residents who wish to use the service log onto SSM’s virtual visit platform, complete a questionnaire and within 15 minutes to an hour, will receive a video or phone call from an SSM Health clinician.

The service is available for patients ages 2 to 75 for nonurgent health conditions like flu, pink eye or bladder infections. Parents or guardians must complete visits for minors.   

SSM Health will charge a $25 flat fee for a virtual visit. However, if the issue cannot be resolved online and a follow-up visit in person is necessary, the virtual visit is free.

The health system plans to roll the program out in Illinois and Oklahoma later this year.

 

Walmart drops price of virtual visits from $40 to $4

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/telehealth/walmart-drops-price-of-virtual-visits-from-40-to-4.html

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Walmart is offering employees a 90 percent discount on telemedicine, dropping the price of a virtual visit from $40 to $4, The Denver Post reports.

The retailer reduced the cost of telemedicine services Jan. 1 to increase options for employees seeking care, a spokesperson confirmed to Becker’s Hospital Review. Walmart’s health benefits currently cover more than 1 million people enrolled it its Associates’ Medical Plan. Through this plan, virtual visits through the Doctor On Demand app are covered like a normal physician’s office visit.

Walmart is one of many employers to offer telemedicine benefits to workers. Eighty percent of large and midsize companies offered the benefit in 2018, according to the report. However, factors like emotion, forgetfulness and preference have kept utilization down. Just 8 percent of employees at large and midsize companies used telemedicine benefits in 2017, according to the report.

Read more here.  

A shifting definition of insurers at AHIP Institute

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/editor-s-corner-ahip-institute-reveals-shifting-definition-health-plans?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=959610&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRkbVlqUXpaREE1TURnMiIsInQiOiJwa1dNekJcL2p6Vk80ZzA2b2hsd3ByRFwvYjhOa0YxaXBFYTlkMTlkRjVjck42NjFXWWdwbWNoWGJ6QjNhSnFqMlBCbGFOMVlUXC9nZHVqa1FWMW1rMlpSWjd0VFJqYWVnOE05d2xuUGViMDBVMD0ifQ%3D%3D

Business people mingling at the 2016 AHIP conference

The line between payer and provider continues to blur. Not only are insurers increasingly working closely with providers, but more and more, they are acting like them—and vice versa. Just ask David Bernd, CEO emeritus of the integrated system Sentara Health, who pointed out that the historical “head-to-head combat” between the two entities no longer works in today’s health system. Similarly, as evidenced by the amount of time AHIP CEO Marilyn Tavenner spent lauding Medicaid managed care plans, care management—with a focus on the member as a whole person, not just a patient—is the future.