An analysis of Doctor On Demand administrative data conducted by the RAND Corporation suggests that patients turning to direct-to-consumer telemedicine services in the days following natural disasters such as hurricanes are most often seeking routine care and guidance, as opposed to treatment for new issues prompted by the storms.
Still, the data suggest that the service (which Doctor On Demand,...
A study published in Health Affairs and conducted by the RAND Corporation made a big splash this week with a bold claim: That telemedicine doesn’t actually reduce healthcare costs because the increased convenience leads to increased utilization, which ultimately costs more than in-person care would have.
The study looked at claims data from a cohort of 300,000 employees with access to Teladoc...
Video doctor visits have the potential to help many different kinds of patients, but elderly patients, who are sometimes homebound or have trouble driving, would seem like a natural fit -- including the more than 50 million Americans on Medicare. However, according to a new report from Kaiser Health News, fewer than 1 percent of Medicare beneficiaries use video visit technology, owing mostly to a...
Last week, JAMA Internal Medicine published a two-page research letter by the Rand Corporation that played into a national conversation about the efficacy of telemedicine -- specifically Teladoc, a company which is both about to IPO and embroiled in a potentially precedent-setting legal battle with its home state of Texas over whether the Texas Medical Board has the right to regulate the practice...
Physicians who meet with patients via direct to consumer telemedicine services are just as likely to prescribe antibiotics as those who conduct in-person visits, according to a study conducted by Rand Corporation. The study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.
The study examined health plan claims from 1,725 patients who used telemedicine...
