Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: HealthRight CEO John Palumbo (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Let me ask you a few more onion-peeling questions here to understand the model. It’s quite complex and the healthcare system is really a nightmare. What is the monthly fee that you charge for being a member in your network?

John Palumbo: Depending on the program, it could be anywhere from $14.95 a month to $24.95 a month.

Sramana Mitra: Are the services that you provide covered by insurance?

John Palumbo: The physician consult would not be but if you are insured and the physician writes a pharmacy prescription or a laboratory test prescription, you would simply use your insurance card. We would help you get that prescription to the testing centre or the pharmacy of your choice. In the subscription program, because there is no cost to the physician, there’s no reason to worry about whether you’re covered or not.

Sramana Mitra: You say you save on the medication. How do you save on the medication?

John Palumbo: We have negotiated prices with pharmacy benefit organizations throughout the US so we are able to offer that cash-paying consumer, in most cases, up to anywhere from a 30% to a 70% discount. We build a discount network into our programs.

Sramana Mitra: What kind of care can people look at you for? Are we talking about general physician services? Are we talking about endocrinology? Diabetes, for instance, is a very big category that ends up costing people a lot of money. Do you have coverage of those? What’s your specialization coverage?

John Palumbo: As I said earlier, the primary use of the actual remote console itself is for non-critical care needs – minor aches and pains, allergy problems, migraine problems, and ear infections. Even the AMA says that up to 70% of the office visits could be handled remotely. It’s really an interaction with the doctor so enough information can flow and the physician, more than likely, can feel comfortable making a recommendation of how to treat that medical condition.

Remotely, our physicians would not be dealing with oncology cases. When it comes to congestive heart failure or COPD, they don’t deal with those. When it comes to wellness and prevention and even some diabetic chronic care management, these consults can help. Oftentimes, a diabetic needs to get a haemoglobin test done every year. They could use us to get the testing order. They could consult with the physician on what to do next.

If that physician needed to recommend them to a specialist, our nurse can find a specialist in the area for that patient and help them identify a specialist to go to. We try to act with that patient as if they were in a brick-and-mortar setting because our nurse is integrated through the entire process, which is one of the unique features and services of our programs. You’re never alone. A nurse is with you 100% of the time when speaking with a physician and even following up on any orders or suggestions that that physician may have.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: HealthRight CEO John Palumbo
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