1. TELEMEDICINE IN A MANAGED CARE SYSTEM: By medical dictionary managed care system is “a health care system with administrative control over primary health care services in a medical group practice. The intention is to eliminate redundant facilities and services and to reduce costs”. Doctors are increasingly getting involved in general health care market for providing managed care for the patients. But telemedicine can help in this regard. Following are the pros:
a) Cost effective
b) Time saving
c) Can cover a large number of rural area where transport and medical facility is an existing issue In 1995, a non-profit organization Allina started its operation in Minnesota. It was a result of a merger of an insurance company named Medica and a large health care delivery system named Health span which used to provide medical service to a number of rural sites. Their telemedicine system used to provide administrative, educational, community as well as clinical services. The fund was arranged from internal resource, some grants and an arrangements between a consortium of hospitals and U.S. West (the regional Bell operating company) that lets the system avoid long distance charges for its rural links.
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Clinically it can provide case consultation, proper medication prescribe and crisis response through emergency 24 hour service. From administrative and educational side it can provide services like preadmission and pre-discharge of patients, technology training or health education and awareness. Funding can be received through ppp or different state run mental health org which can’t open another centre in a remote area. As an example EOHSC an organisation in USA, was awarded a three-year ($700,000) grant from the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) for demonstrating how telemedicine can be used in delivering mental health care in eastern