Recently, The Guardian did a piece on telemedicine that tried to explain Direct Primary Care. They did a poor job, as usual. They somehow forgot to mention how real DPC Docs flourished during COVID while FFS docs got financially destroyed. The article then tries to explain the next iteration of telemedicine called “asynchronous” care. Hold onto your coffee because you may spit it out.
Right now, most telehealth visits are a live conversation with a doctor, usually your own, either on the phone or on video chat. Now, proponents of a new business model want patients and doctors to adopt “asynchronous” or “store-and-forward” care – you answer a series of questions in a detailed intake form, a doctor you may never meet reviews them – they may or may not message you – and then issues a diagnosis and treatment plan.
You have to love it when Big Tech thinks they can fix everything. Telemedicine works well with DPC because we HAVE seen the patients before. We know them. We can also easily say “come on in to the office because I need to see you in person.”
A subscription to Alpha Medical costs just $120 a year and promises “unlimited messaging” with a provider, though no in-person treatment or prescriptions are covered.
Remember, a lot of times these Big Tech companies just want numbers. They, unlike you, can lose money hand over fist so they can eventually be bought out by an Apple, Google, Amazon, or even an insurance company. Ten dollars a month for a pared down messaging system with a provider (probably not a doctor) has got to a joke.
Oh, and there there is this:
One of Alpha’s chief claims was that, “over 70% of medical conditions including cold and flu, rashes, and more” can be treated online. It is a comment Lau echoes in conversation.
“The majority of things can be treated via telemedicine now,” she said. “The other 20-30% that needs to be in person, should be in person.” But this claim proves hard to back up.
To explain how it found this figure, a company spokesperson first directed the Guardian to a statement widely published in articles about telemedicine, attributed to the American Medical Association (AMA).
“Almost 75% of all doctor, urgent care, and ER visits ‘are either unnecessary or could be handled safely and effectively over the phone or video,’ according to statistics from the American Medical Association and the Wellness Council of America,” the statement said.
The AMA denied ever saying this.
“I can confirm that the AMA is NOT the source of the statement or statistic,” said Robert Mills, a media coordinator for the AMA who handles telemedicine inquiries. “The AMA is unaware of the original source, but the statement has been parroted by many without double-checking with the AMA.”
Unable to back up the stat, a press representative for Alpha said the company would remove the claim from its website.
So why write about this here? Well, at the end of the piece the author ropes in the real Direct Primary Care movement at the bottom which somehow gives a false equivalence to the other crap. This sucks and proves we have a PR issue.
ALL MEDICAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES ARE NOT THE SAME!
Real Direct Primary Care is run by real doctors. They have a small panel of patients who utilize telemedicine when appropriate. The office is NOT asynchronous. DPC Physicians are living and breathing human beings who have trained for over a decade to help people. They didn’t just spawn during a pandemic.
That’s the DPC difference.