'bout time! Not only does telemedicine help patients, but it also lowers cost. Also...there an increase in the physicians quality of life (Can see patients from home)!
Big
telehealth firm to go public as remote doctor visits gain traction
One of the largest companies in
the telemedicine field is going public Wednesday in a move that signals how
important remote doctor visits are becoming to the future of health care and
efforts to reduce costs.
Shares in Teladoc, a growing but
sometimes controversial player in the field, are priced at $19. Teladoc expects
to raise gross proceeds of $180 million by selling 9.5 million shares, which
includes 15% made available to the underwriters.
The expected proceeds exceed earlier
estimates of about $130 million. Teladoc raised the share price from an
estimated $15-17 and added more shares due to the positive reception during the
investor road show.
"There was very strong
reception by the investment community to the market opportunity, Teladoc's
leadership position, our historical performance and our future
opportunity," CEO Jason Gorevic told USA TODAY late Tuesday.
Teladoc's 700 board-certified
doctors deal directly with consumers on the phone, which sets the company apart
from much of the rest of telemedicine, which more often involves a physician
with a sick patient who video conferences with another doctor who is often a
specialist.
The company won a legal fight
recently when a federal judge ruled that a Texas Medical Board regulation that
prohibited doctors from diagnosing patients over the phone who they hadn't seen
in person or on video was probably anti-competitive. The board was blocked from
enforcing it until an antitrust suit Teladoc filed against the board was decided.
Teladoc started in 2002, and
Gorevic, a former president of Empire Blue
Cross Blue Shield, joined as CEO in 2009.
"I've been looking
throughout my career for an opportunity to do something that could really
improve quality of care, reduce the cost of care and was a win, win, win for
the payers, whether the employers or the health plans, the consumer and the
doctor and I finally found one," Gorevic says.
Even the telemedicine industry is
conflicted about the best way to do this. Industry experts at an American Telemedicine Association conference in May debated the risks
and benefits of over-the-phone consultations, saying that although it is
possible to effectively and ethically treat mild conditions this way, some
illnesses can't be safely treated over the phone or in a video call. Panelists
noted 10% of prescriptions for pediatric sinus infections occur over the phone,
and it's up to the industry to keep that number from growing since these
children should be seen in person.
A RAND Corp. study commissioned by the California Healthcare Foundation found Teladoc physicians prescribed
antibiotics at the same rate as doctors did during office visits.
Several studies show video is
"by far preferred as the primary medium in telemedicine," says
medical technology analyst Roeen Roashan.
"There is a comfort and
level of intimacy that allows both physician and patient to end the session
satisfied," he says. But phone consultations have "existed for many
years and still play a big role today."
Though some mainstream family
care doctors bristle at what they see as a risky practice, companies including PepsiCo, Bank of America and some major insurers use Teladoc as
a way to cut soaring health care costs and make doctors more accessible. About
11 million of their employees and clients are Teladoc members.
Another Teladoc client,
Rent-a-Center, saves an average of $754 per employee every time they do a phone
consultation with a doctor, according to a Teladoc-commissioned study
co-authored by Harvard Medical
School associate professor and
physician Niteesh Choudhry and Stanford
School of Medicine professor and
physician Arnold Milstein.
The biggest savings reflect what
it would have cost if employees went to the emergency room instead. The authors
acknowledge something Roashan points out: The savings from telephone
consultations are partially offset by the number of times patients need
in-office visits after the calls.
Gorevic boasts that his company
does more than 500,000 of the 800,000 phone and video consultations a year that
involve just one doctor and a patient. That's dwarfed by the 10 million video
consultations a year that involve doctors consulting with each other about a
patient, which Roashan says could double by 2018.
He's not convinced that's a good
thing.
"A 15-minute video call is
not the same as good health care," says Roashan, who is with IHS
Technology. "There's no patient engagement, it's just a transaction."
Gorevic says his doctors offer
patients the option of talking via Facetime or sending pictures or videos for
doctors to see. All patients fill out medical histories before they are seen,
which is typically within 10 minutes.
Teladoc was sued in early June by
competitor American Well, which
alleged Teladoc's technology infringed on an American Well patent. The suit
seeks an injunction against Teladoc continuing to do business. Teladoc
petitioned the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office in March to
invalidate some of American Well's patents. Both cases are pending.
"The investment community
recognizes Teladoc's opportunity to change the health care landscape,"
Gorevic says.
