Online house calls click with doctors

Compensation still at the headline here...at Kaiser the physician may be a salaried or hourly employee, different from an individual small practice...makes a big difference...and granted every visit can't be handled this way...BD

Consulting your family physician is finally moving into the 21st century and out of the doctor's office.
Since the dawn of e-mail, patients have been pleading for more doctors to offer medical advice online. No traffic jams, no long waits, no germ-infested offices with outdated magazines and bad elevator music.
In recent weeks, Aetna Inc., the nation's largest insurer, and Cigna Corp. have agreed to reimburse doctors for online visits. Other large insurers are expected to follow, experts say. Dr. Christy Calderon, a family physician at Kaiser Permanente's Whittier office, conducts as many as half her appointments over the phone or online with a 3-inch camera affixed to her desktop. "It adds a more personal touch," she said.
"When I used to call his office, the staff would take a message, wait for a reply and then call me back when they had time," she said. "Now I get an e-mail by the end of the day."
Even with major insurers signing on, it remains to be seen whether a large share of the public will embrace Internet medicine. Surveys show that many patients and doctors remain uncertain whether the technology is right for them. Also still on the sidelines is the federal Medicare agency, which pays about half the nation's doctor bills.