With Broadband Access, Patients In Hawaii Can Make Web Calls To Doctors
The Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state's Blue Cross-Blue Shield Licensee, is going to provide a web service – called American Well – that will increase the accessibility of doctors to both insured and uninsured patients.
"Using the latest technologies in Web communications and digital telephony, the Hawaii Medical Service Association extends traditional healthcare services to the home setting," according to the its website. Doctors will be able to view patients through a webcam, check patients' medical records and file prescriptions online.
The system has enormous potential to connect individuals in remote rural areas to competent medical professionals, as well as providing access for the uninsured who typically are a lower priority than insured patients at doctor's offices.
Using the service, however, requires access to broadband, something that many portions of Hawaii do not. Speed Matters' 2008 report on state-to-state Internet download speeds ranks Hawaii 42 out of 50.
According to the New York Times article:
"A study last November by Forrester Consulting for the California HealthCare Foundation found that about two-thirds of uninsured patients used broadband at home and that almost all medical professionals did."
Despite these encouraging findings, the group in the study most likely to be without broadband internet access was the chronically uninsured, a group for many of whom American Well would represent their first regular access to a doctor. 61% of this group had access to broadband, compared to the national average of 71%.
Policymakers in Washington are taking notice of the potential of telehealth services like American Well, and insurers in other states will soon offer it, as well. Broadband infrastructure development and healthcare reform are two areas that compliment each other very well, providing an incentive for federal and state legislatures to improve both.
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