If this week's announcement from UnitedHealth Group is any indication, things have changed permanently for the national telemedicine scene. Working with Cisco Systems, UnitedHealth made an impressive-sounding announcement that it would be rolling out telehealth services to its nearly 600,000 providers and 4,900-odd hospitals, something no other large health plan has done to date.

In theory, this is a ground-breaking event, given that health plans have shown little interest in reimbursing for telemedical services. The thing is, it's just as likely that Cisco has made big price concessions to roll out a big ol' demonstration project for its health conferencing gear.

Just look at the press release which, notably, comes from Cisco rather than UnitedHealth. The UHG/Cisco announcement is all about test sites and pilots, not an actual rollout boasting, clinical statistics or results. Sure, it's great to hear that when Cisco tested the technology with its technophile employees, they liked remote visits, but that doesn't say much about the acceptance level UHG will see among its 70 million beneficiaries nationwide. And it definitely doesn't tell us how successful UHG will be at meeting its cost-control and quality goals.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of specialized clinical evidence showing that telemedicine, when used properly, can save money and improve clinical outcomes, something we've reported repeatedly here in FierceHealthIT. But it's still an open question whether consumers will get comfortable enough with telemedicine, quickly enough, so it can pay for itself over the amount of time necessary to justify the outlay.

In short, I guess what I'm saying is that it may take a lot of Cisco's bucks, and patience, to get and keep health plans like UHG on board, and ultimately, build telemedicine into a sustainable treatment modality for providers. The other stakeholders just don't have enough reason to ram it through, nor enough vision to get through the learning curve.

Cisco, I know there's big money here, but I hope you know what you're getting into. This is going to be a long ride. - Anne