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According to Stanford University professor
Dr. Alan Greene, 210 million Americans are
without access to a doctor on the day they
need one. When they do see a doctor,
the average time they spend with the doctor
during an office visit is 7.5 minutes.
There is an overwhelming amount
of biased, generic or outright incorrect
health-related information available to
consumers on the Web, on TV and in
print. This is producing anxiety among
consumers, who are becoming increasingly
responsible for health care decision
making and cost sharing. Based on this
information, many patients diagnose
themselves inappropriately, ending up
by spending money on ineffective treatments,
medications, supplies, and physician
and emergency room visits. In our
health service assessments, 93 percent
of the respondents doing online health
research said they would prefer to have
a live conversation with a doctor during
these online sessions to review, discuss
or suggest alternatives to the information
they find.
Consumers need a third option –
health care that is easily accessible, responsive
and effective. Property managers
and communication service providers
are advantageously positioned to meet
this significant, and growing, need.
According to Parks Associates analyst
Harry Wang, “Service providers are in
a unique, once-in-a-lifetime position to
enter and service this growing service
industry. The home will be the central
location in the new preventative care
model in health care applications, with
broadband enabling home medical services,
telemedicine applications and patient
monitoring.”
Based on our early results, we think
consumers will use this “third option”
for a number of purposes, including getting
second opinions; gaining a deeper
understanding of their medical conditions
or the treatments they’ve been prescribed;
finding out whether they need
emergency help for sudden-onset pain
or other symptoms; and seeking advice
about alternative or complementary
treatments their primary doctors may
not have told them about.
Many providers are already getting
ready to meet this demand. In a poll
that I took during a FTTH Council webinar
in December 2008, 21 percent of
participants indicated they were evaluating
or finalizing plans for rolling out
health and wellness services in 2009.
Videoconferencing with doctors was the
service that generated the highest level
of interest (92 percent).
Advantages to Network Owners
By providing online health and wellness
services to residents and subscribers,
property developers and managers and
communication service providers can
generate additional revenue streams.
Health care affects 100 percent of residents
and subscribers, and the demand
for improved health services will only
Telemedicine
increase in the years ahead. Health care
demand, while not quite recession-proof,
is not driven by economic cycles. In fact,
history has shown that during recessionary
periods the shift of responsibility for
health care services to consumers accelerates.
The current economic downturn
is unlikely to be an exception.
Video consultation services offer
property managers and network operators
several new revenue streams without
incurring any capital expenditures.
By simply adding a video channel or a
link on the community portal, they can
collect a percentage of:
• each video consultation fee
• each subscription purchased
• sales of equipment, supplies, vitamins,
etc.; and
• advertising revenues.
Our health service assessments indicate
that residents are indeed willing to
pay for such services. Forty-four percent
of respondents said they “probably” or
“definitely” would purchase an Internet
or cable TV package that included the
MedConcierge TV service over one that
didn’t, and another 33 percent would
consider it, based on further information.
In addition, nearly a third of respondents
“probably” or “definitely”
would pay for a service that enables live
Video Consultations with Doctors
Can Save Money for Consumers
Even avoiding a few unnecessary emergency room visits could be extremely
beneficial for consumers. Out-of-pocket costs for an office or ER
visit, including travel expenses, average $696 nationally; for persons age
45 – 64, the average cost for an ER visit was $832 in 2003 (according to the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and is certainly much higher
today. Time savings are also significant: Average ER wait time was 56 minutes
in 2006 and is growing as more people use the ER as their primary
source of care and as the number of ERs declines. (According to the Centers
for Disease Control, ER usage increased by 32 percent from 1996 to 2006,
while the number of ERs fell from 4,900 to below 4,600.)
In a 2008 study by Milliman, a health care actuarial firm, videoconferencing
with doctors was shown to save employers, insurers and the
government between $3.36 and $6.96 per member per month in health
care costs. The majority of savings are in non-emergent ER visits and inperson
physician visits. Other areas of potential savings that are still under
study include chronic disease management, early disease detection and
care management.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 47