Mapping and location applications used on smartphones to locate nearby cafes or gas stations could soon include clinics and emergency rooms.
A new telehealth app, developed by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based telehealth company HealthiestYou, is focused making this a reality. The app uses a "radar mapping" feature to aggregate a comprehensive list of all nearby health options, including pharmacy locations, urgent care, physicians' offices and emergency rooms. The app displays the distance from the user's current location and includes contact information and customer reviews for nearby care facilities.
When app users register with HealthiestYou, they provide health plan information that then enables them to interact with nearby providers within their coverage network.
"The natural tendency when there is an emergency is to drive to a location you remember seeing whether it is in your health plan's network or not," Jim Prendergast, CEO of HealthiestYou, said in a statement. "Our app lets people quickly see where there is a plan-covered facility and many times there is one just as close and in your network. This can save literally thousands of dollars for consumers and health plans."