The Doctr Is In
from the housecalls-by-IM dept
Back in the day, when you were sick, you would call the doctor, and they make a house call to diagnose your condition and provide care. In this modern age of managed care, where doctors are evaluated on the volume of patients that they are able to process, house calls are now but a distant memory. Now, Dr. Jay Parkinson, a Brooklyn doctor, brought the house call back -- but it's been updated for the times. Parkinson has started a new medical practice that centers around instant messenger, email and house calls. During regular business hours, he is available to his patients for online medical consultations. Dr. Parkinson then pays the patient a house call only if it is really necessary (you get two included house calls in the fee), but most issues can be addressed virtually. This is not surprising since studies confirm that online chat with your doctor is nearly as effective as an in-person visit. Specializing in young adults age 18 to 40 without traditional health insurance, this approach could teach a few things to the health care industry. Of course, what he's doing is really similar to what many nurse practitioners do, so you could see him scaling his practice by employing a staff of nurse practitioners who answer IMs and emails, and then escalating qualifying issues to doctors and specialists. A second interesting point about Parkinson's plan is that since all of his clients are very price conscious (since they're paying out of pocket), he actively shops around for the best value specialists to send his clients to. In the age of copayments and insurance, you very rarely see much price comparison shopping in health care. As we've discussed here before, the current health care system is beset with problems, so it's encouraging to see a differentiated spur some excitement (and competition) in a very homogeneous marketplace.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Dealing with the young won't solve our healthcare problems, because typically the young don't need much healthcare.
As for the studies that show online chat is almost as effective as a doctor visit, I wonder if its because it works through chat or because a typical doctor visit doesn't allow much time for the doctor to really spend time with you? Maybe that bar isn't all that high.
As for finding value in specialists, I have doubts about that one. If you need a specialist, you probably have a problem. If you have a problem, you probably shouldn't be looking to save money, you should be looking for someone who will save your life. Someone who is the best.
In NYC? How many teaching hospitals are within 50 miles? That is where you will find cutting edge medicine being done. No insurance? No problem.
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lawsuit
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LOVE IT
Anyway, obviously in our legal climate it would be suit-city, but I think something similar, and a whole range of services, could give some much needed options and price pressure to the entire market.
This guy's idea is probably much better, and I wish him luck.
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Although, if you have a rash and they are checking it out, unless you have a high def camera sending pics, in person would be better. Routine things can be done through chat or email, but doctors do need to actually be able to judge body language and tone, because they know we lie to them anyway.
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John Stossel did a report on 20/20 about Wal-Mart clinics - same concept - doctor gives you a menu of services and lets you know prices up front. Since he knows you're paying for it yourself - or at least need to know the dollar amounts - he doesn't screw you around.
This beats the hell out of HillaryCare, and will save our health care dilemma.
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Re:
It's not either/or. Having your live saved is not an excuse for being financially raped, and it's not necessary either. It may seem heartless to apply capitalist market forces to even complex procedures that save lives, but in the end more lives will actually get saved and they may not go broke in the process.
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For example my son had Pink Eye. I knew he had pink eye and I hate going to the hospital. So I called the Nurse and described his symptoms. She prescribed some meds and that was it. No co-pay on a visit to the Doctor, no waiting for hours to see the doctor, just pick up the meds in an hour.
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House Calls
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Could be on to something...
And RandomThoughts,
Dealing with the young won't solve our healthcare problems, because typically the young don't need much healthcare.
While I agree dealing with the young won't solve the nation's immdiate healthcare problems it will help prevent some of them from happening decades down the road when today's young are tommorow's elderly.
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HIPPA and email
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#15
What's this "copay" situation?
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RE: #1
Dealing with the young is called preventative medicine, and is the most cost effective and positive way of dealing with health care issues. Waiting till a patient is very sick only benefits the drug companies.
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Re: #15
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