telehealth

Half of physicians and extenders said virtual visits could replace more than 10 percent of in-office patient visits, thus giving them more time during the workday, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs.

Most healthcare practitioners are either using telemedicine or planning to use it soon, but less than a fifth of them are being paid for those services.

Sunrise, Florida-based MDLive, which offers telehealth services including patient-to-physician remote visits via mobile devices, has acquired online therapy provider Breakthrough Behavioral.

In May, Oscar, the New York-based individual-only insurance plan raised $80 million at close to a $1 billion valuation.

Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule that will lead to changes in coverage under Medicare Part B.

Telemedicine has been around for a number of years, but it's not yet an everyday channel for patients to receive care.

Philips has unveiled a prototype system, consisting of a wearable sensor and connected software suite, to monitor patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs announced that 690,000 US veterans received care in the 2014 fiscal year via telehealth, with 2 million telehealth visits scheduled.

Source: Reddit About a year ago when Google launched its video chats service and directory Helpouts, which connects people to experts in a wide variety of fields, reports emerged that the search giant was now offering video visits with doctors.

Planned Parenthood has launched a pilot program for a service that prescribes birth control to women via video visits, powered by American Well, and then sends them either the pill, the patch or the ring through the mail.