March 5th, 2009

Reports the Wall Street Journal:

The doctor will see you now … electronically.

Some new low-cost services have popped up on the Internet with the aim of providing basic health-care consultations more cheaply and easily.

In January, American Well Inc. went live with a Web service that allows patients to communicate with doctors via online video, text chat or phone. The doctors can view patient personal health records through Microsoft Corp.’s HealthVault and even prescribe medication over the Web. The service is currently available only in Hawaii through the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate in Hawaii. HMSA-insured patients pay $10 for a 10-minute visit; uninsured or non-member patients pay $45 for a 10-minute consultation.

A similar service, SwiftMD Inc., launched in November and is now available in New York and New Jersey. For a one-time $18 registration fee and $9 a month, users can make an appointment at any time to speak with a doctor over the phone or through online video chat. Doctors call or connect on average within a half an hour of when the appointment was made, and patients pay $59 for the consultation.

…

The services are the next step in “telehealth,” or the delivery of health care through the telephone, Web or other telecommunications technologies. While some doctors communicate with their patients electronically, medical providers and insurance companies generally provide online services that allow patients only to manage personal health records, schedule appointments, refill prescriptions and request referrals.

The new services offer the convenience of online consultations, but they still have their drawbacks. Since physician-licensing regulations and health plans vary from state to state, the availability of electronic consultations is limited. And some patients may be reluctant to confide in a stranger — even one with a medical degree — or have concerns about the privacy and safekeeping of their records online.

Read more details about online health services at the WSJ.