does blue cross blue shield cover video visits

Smart health care consumers increasingly are accessing telehealth services in their quests for affordable and convenient quality medical care. Many Blue Plans, including WellPoint’s affiliated health plans, and other health plans throughout the country have recognized that telehealth solutions can help them meet the requests from their members for convenient and cost effective care. It serves as a complement to traditional care outside of regular office hours or when appointments are not available at appropriate times for the consumer, and, with the average telehealth visit costing $20-$49 is often a more affordable option than a retail clinic or urgent care. Telehealth, as an accepted mode of health communication in many states, especially in rural areas where many people have to drive hours to visit a doctor, can help ensure consumers have access to medical care. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. Inconvenient office hours, slow and expensive urgent care centers, and crowded ERs, are driving consumers to seek more convenient, cost-effective care. They can review a patient’s personal history with them, answer questions, diagnose and treat, and if medically appropriate and allowed by the state, doctors can send prescriptions directly to a nearby pharmacy.

The doctors are there to handle acute conditions (colds, flu, sore throats, pink eye, sinus infections, etc), exacerbations of chronic conditions, triage, and general advice. Members can review the background and patient ratings of doctors where they are at and can select the one that most suits their needs. It has now been expanded as a covered benefit to the majority of our health plan customers, including health exchange members. Board-certified doctors are available 24 hours, 365 days a year, including holidays, to connect with patients via secure two-way video. In 2013, WellPoint’s affiliated health plans launched a new online care service called LiveHealth Online to national employers. While telemedicine has been around for many years and has typically been used to connect rural patients to specialists, improving their access to quality care, the technology is evolving and now telehealth can also be used to connect people (regardless of their location) to various types of clinicians-not just specialists-who have the ability to diagnose, treat and guide patient care. The trend has been dubbed telehealth, and is allowing consumers to conveniently and affordably access quality health care through video conversations with board-certified physicians. Families increasingly are turning to these technologies for safe, fast and affordable ways to get a diagnosis and treatment plan for non-emergency conditions. These days, smart phones, tablets and computers can do more than connect us with long-lost friends or enable us to quickly check the score of our favorite sports team. What many people don’t realize is that one answer to convenience in health care lies right in their pockets or purses - or on the top of their desks. What other options do you have, but to keep your child home from school and hope to get into your primary care doctor the next day? It’s not an emergency, so you don’t want to drive and wait at the ER. It’s late at night and your child woke up with a burning, itching eye – maybe pink eye? The local retail clinic and urgent care centers are closed.

Does blue cross blue shield cover video visits