New high-tech healthcare services are bringing house calls back in vogue.
It’s “Uber for health-care,” doctors and nurses coming on-demand to provide medical care for non-emergencies such as giving flu shots or treating strep throats.
These new entrants in medicine are not being met with the same opposition from traditional doctors that ride-sharing services have encountered from taxi drivers.
In some cases, the startups are partnering with hospital systems. Centura Health, Colorado’s largest hospital chain, joined with Dispatch Health (formerly True North Health Navigation) to offer on-scene care to 911 callers when an ambulance is not necessary.
In-home care, once seen as inefficient, is now being seen as a cost-efficient way to provide care. In June, Medicare announced that a pilot program to provide in-home care to patients with chronic-conditions reduced cost by more than $3,000 per patient.
Analysts say it’s still too early to tell whether the new on-demand services will truly reduce healthcare costs or make it more convenient for the healthy and wealthy to get care.
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