Regence Emphasizes Quick Access With New DTC Telehealth Service

Regence is putting a new spin on direct-to-consumer telehealth with a service that promises members access to a doctor within seconds.

The Oregon-based payer with more than 3 million members in several Western states has launched the Ask a Doctor – Secure Messaging platform, an mHealth app that connects with a doctor via text message in seconds and offers options for audio and video connections as well as photos.

James Polo, MD, Regence’s Executive Medical Director for Behavioral Health, says the platform takes away the administrative tasks that often clog up DTC telehealth services and delay care for people who may just want an answer to a quick question or a friendly voice telling them their health concern doesn’t merit a trip to the ER.

“The usual default in the past” is to go somewhere and wait to see a doctor, he says. “That doesn’t help the person who is feeling sick and overwhelmed.”

Sometimes called “chat-first telehealth,” the platform seeks to push triage to the forefront, giving patients quick access to a care provider under the expectation that treatment can be rendered quickly and efficiently. It’s seen as an ideal platform for episodic care, such as non-acute health concerns and ailments that would otherwise fill up an ER or doctor’s office.

Polo says people “have a different mindset” when they’re seeking on-demand care for themselves or a loved one. They want quick treatment from a doctor, so that they can take care of the concern and go on with life. A service vetted by their health plan would work just fine under those circumstances, while all other continuing and regularly-scheduled health and wellness concerns would be handle by their primary care provider.

Likewise, Polo says primary care providers aren’t threatened by the service because they’re often overbooked and in need of other care outlets that can treat patients who really don’t need to schedule an appointment two weeks away or sit in a waiting room for hours. All they ask is that the care provided by platforms like Ask a Doctor be documented and included in the patient’s medical record.

While the chat-first telehealth platform is working for payers like Regence who want to give their members quick access to care, it’s also proving popular with health systems looking to reach underserved populations who don’t typically access healthcare services outside the hospital or community clinic.

One such provider is Sanitas Medical Center, an international health system with roughly two dozen locations in Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut. Last year Sanitas partnered with CirrusMD – which also developed the platform used by Regence – to create a service that would be a first point of contact for underserved people seeking quick access to care.

“There are so many cases where our patients really don’t know how to navigate the system,” Juan Estrada, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Sanitas’ Florida division, told mHealthIntelligence in a 2019 interview. They’ll get caught up in the registration and triage process, he said, lose faith or interest in the process and miss out on the care they need.

Estrada sees this type of platform as an evolution of the traditional telehealth service, aimed at reducing unnecessary visits to the doctor or ER. Offered free of charge for established patients, the platform connects a caller with a Sanitas doctor within minutes on a web-enabled devices for low-complexity issues.

“You just open the app and you’re immediately connected,” he said. “Then you can have a conversation with a doctor. Sometimes these conversations continue (sporadically) for hours, or can even go overnight.”

Back at Regence, Polo sees Ask a Doctor as one piece of a comprehensive telehealth platform giving members access to the care they need when and where they need it. But they have to know about the services in order to use them.

“One of our biggest challenges with all of our telehealth services is educating people ahead of time,” he says.

In time, he hopes the platform can be modified to give members access to specialists, offering quick care for issues ranging from joint pain to pediatric concerns.