Telehealth and concierge care are finally getting to know each other.
The breakthrough came this week with the announcement that Ringadoc has launched a platform that will allow consumers to have a telehealth consult with their own doctor. Ringadoc Phone Concierge costs roughly $40 per visit, officials say, similar to a standard insurance co-pay for a visit to the doctor's office.
“In an increasingly congested, expensive and reactive healthcare system, the potential benefits have never been greater to begin taking better advantage of technology to introduce new, lower cost options to guide and deliver care,” said Jordan Michaels, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based company, in a press release. “If you aren’t the President or have a doctor in the family your only option when you get sick is to head to the emergency room or wait, often for weeks, for the next available appointment with your physician. This standard of care is extremely inefficient from a time and cost perspective, but most importantly, it can easily result in patients getting suboptimal care, or forgoing care they need.”
Ringadoc launched in 2010 with a provider-facing service, then upped the ante last year with Ringadoc Exchange, which enables physicians to triage their own patient calls from a mobile device. The company also built out its platform with partnerships with EHR provider Practice Fusion and Amazing Charts.
Now, the company is approaching this from the patient's side of the table. According to Michaels, Ringadoc handles all the billing details with the consumer before the message is forwarded to the doctor's office, giving doctor and patient the freedom to focus on the purpose of the call.
More importantly, he said, the service enables consumers to connect with their own doctors, rather than a random, anonymous provider. That's a selling point for the provider as well.
“We give practices the tools to more efficiently manage their patient population, generate additional revenue and make their patients happier by offering the type of premium access typically reserved for only the wealthy,” he said in the press release.
Among the early adopters is Mark Patterson, MD, of Back to Basics Medical in Sanford, N.C.
“Knowing the patients I’m talking to has helped me more reliably identify whether it is an issue I can resolve right then and there, or if it requires follow-up. Patients that have been able to reach me directly have easily saved thousands of dollars in unnecessary Emergency Room visits simply because I know their history and can better interpret their story.” Patterson said in the press release. “My patients recognize Ringadoc is a valuable service and are more than willing to pay a reasonable amount to be able to have immediate access to me outside of an office visit at their convenience."
