On March 11, 2010, BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York (BCBSWNY), BlueShield of Northeastern New York (BSNENY) and American Well™ Inc agreed to provide on line care in upstate NY. This is good news for rural folks reported by Medical News.
I immediately suspect less than altruistic motives and question whether this will degrade outcomes since it’s headed up by insurance companies, leaders in the evil empire with a primary concern of quarterly numbers. I’ll wonder for a while, unless on line treatment is instituted immediately in enough places with rapid-cycle testing that can produce measurable data in three to six weeks. I’ve been a proponent of this sort of program implementation for treatment and software since the early 90’s. I’ve tried it, it works. It turns a situation whereby people must live with the final product into one that encourages fine tuning of the tools to produce the best outcome. Will rapid-cycle testing be used? It’s hard to say with huge companies, and could depend on who’s in charge of the project and current policy. Perhaps this is a newsworthy item for all you cub reporters out there…
Improving outcomes depends on a relentless search for the best way to treat people with problems. If on line treatment helps people get better, it will grow. Issues of saving both agencies and insurance companies money while producing acceptable outcomes in projects like this will determine on line treatment’s role in the future.
With over 1,000 clients, eGetgoing has been using on line treatment successfully a number of years, and it’s covered by insurance. Since it’s backed by CRC Healthcare, which is a pretty large company in the addiction treatment world, and headed up by their CTO, Jay Raimondi, I’d assume they have outcomes data to not only support continuing the business, but also proving outcomes to the insurance companies they do business with. But this is another story for another day.
It looks like on line treatment, telemedicine, gadgets and gizmos are in the treatment world to stay.
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