Web health: The virtual doctor will see you now
June 16, 2002

By RITA RUBIN
Gannett News Service

A small but growing number of health plans and patients are paying doctors for conducting virtual house calls via the Web.

The development challenges the basic belief that physicians should charge only for advice dispensed face to face.

“We are accustomed to picking up the phone and talking to our attorney or our accountant and getting bills for that encounter,” says Harvard internist Daniel Sands, manager of a Web site about doctor-patient electronic communication. “We’re not used to getting that sort of thing from our doctor.”

Advocates expect the popularity of virtual house calls to grow as insurers recognize their value and start reimbursing physicians for them.

For now, reimbursement and patient charges vary. Blue Shield of California doctors charge patients their standard $5 or $10 co-pay, but the plan doesn’t routinely pay anything to doctors. First Health Group, the country’s largest for-profit network, pays its doctors $25 for Web consultations; patients pay nothing. And Medem, a for-profit company founded by the American Medical Association and other major doctor groups, expects patients to foot the $20 to $30 charge for its just-launched Online Consultations.

Proponents say virtual house calls — meant to take place within a doctor-patient relationship established in person — are designed to replace unnecessary office visits, not quick phone calls or e-mails that still will be handled for free.