Telemedicine offerings continue to grow.
Here are 13 recently announced telemedicine programs reported within the past two months.
1. The Department of Social Services in South Dakota launched a pilot program exploring the use of a telemedicine program focused on drug treatment in the rural parts of the state.
2. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Wisconsin now offers members access to telemedicine physician consults for non-emergent conditions.
3. Starting next year, Presbyterian Health Plan, the insurance arm of Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services, will begin offering beneficiaries telemedicine physician consults for minor, acute conditions such as headaches or sore throats.
4. Construction is underway on an all-fiber, public use network connecting Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., that would support telemedicine services.
5. Bloomington, Minn.-based HealthPartners' Virtuwell expanded to the East Coast — Virginians and those traveling or working in the state can now receive care from the online medical clinic.
6. Patients at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington can now take advantage of the hospital's new telemedicine program, enabling patients to undergo a consultation with specialists at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.
7. Cincinnati-based St. Elizabeth Physicians started offering consultations with primary care physicians through an online forum.
8. UPMC Altoona (Pa.) Hospital plans to offer telemedicine services this fall in the emergency room and maternity unit.
9. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center plans to implement a telemedicine program to help treat patients in the Dominican Republic.
10. Verizon launched a new telemedicine service called Verizon Virtual Visits that allows users to receive on-demand care for common, acute conditions.
11. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded pilot project is using telemedicine, and a clinical quality improvement structure designed by the ONC and the American Medical Association, to improve diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C in rural areas.
12. Williamsville, N.Y.-based Independent Health plans to offer telemedicine services to its members beginning in 2015.
13. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., is poised to launch a new virtual clinic designed to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions by monitoring high-risk patients remotely.
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