A Washington-area health management company is making news this week for setting up a system for employees, doctors, insurance claims managers and pharmacists to interact online.
Point to Point Healthcare is being likened to a virtual health clinic: Your doctors can interact and message one another, you can schedule check-ups online, create a wellness journal, rate your physician. The Washington Post writes:
It lets employees create a personal network uniting their insurance claims manager with multiple doctors and pharmacies to better coordinate treatments. An online concierge helps workers find new specialists, and a message system reminds them to pick up prescriptions.
Some worry about Internet privacy and identity theft. Others worry that employers will have too much instant access to wellness data that could too easily be individually identifiable. (The targeted users are small to mid-size businesses.) I’m wondering if physicians — not to mention employees — are ready to grasp a virtual world of health care management.
And physicians may also point out: How will they get reimbursed for their online time? There’s no code for that.