Trend: Health plans begin reimbursing for 'virtual visits'

It's been a long wait, but ever so slowly, health plans are beginning to pay doctors for 'virtual visits' with patients. Vendors like McKesson-owned RelayHealth, mainstay EMR vendor Epic Systems and Web portal vendor Medfusion have offered the technology for a while, but payor acceptance has been slow. However, a consensus is building among payors that such visits are a good idea, despite lingering questions over billing and the ability of physicians to legally offer e-care from out of their home state. These payors are beginning to get excited by data suggesting that such visits can save substantial amounts of money while keeping patients healthy--including a Kaiser study concluding that it saves $70 to $120 on each virtual visit.

One early standout in e-visit adoption is Minnesota, where five of the six largest health plans pay physicians about $35 per virtual visit. Nationally, health plans including Blue Cross of Massachusetts, Blue Shield of California, Aetna, Cigna and WellPoint Blues affiliates are playing with this concept, with experiments taking place in several U.S. markets. Prices are typically closer to $50 per virtual visit.

To find out more about this trend:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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