Technology and managed care: patient benefits of telemedicine in a rural health care network.
Rural health providers have looked to telemedicine as a technology to reduce costs. However, virtual access to physicians and specialists may alter patients' demand for face-to-face physician access. We develop a model of service demand under managed care, and apply the model to a telemedicine application in rural Alaska. Provider-imposed delays and patient costs were highly significant predictors of patient contingent choices in a survey of ENT clinic patients. The results suggest that telemedicine increased estimated patient benefits by about $40 per visit, and reduced patients' loss from rationing of access to physicians by about 20%.
Berman
Matthew
M
Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA. matthew.berman@uaa.alaska.edu
Fenaughty
Andrea
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000413:Alaska; D019058:Community Networks; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017216:Telemedicine