Category Archives: Telemedicine

The CNBC reported on Wednesday that PFE’s Viagra, Pfizer will be scraped off the list of Discount retail chain CVS’s drug insurance benefits. Viagra is the famous erectile dysfunction drug. CVC pharmacy pointed out that the drug is one of the 26 drugs that are being eliminated from the standard formulary in 2016.

Christine Cramer, who is the company’s spokesperson, explained to CNBC that excluding the drug from CVC’s drug insurance benefits does not affect its availability in their stores countrywide. She stressed that the move is motivated by the company’s standard formulary directed to payors who have their pharmacy benefits managed by CVC through CVC/Caremark in form of PBM.

The company is planning to start relaying the information about the new changes to physicians and members at the beginning of fall.

Cramer added that CVC pharmacy’s main concern is the suitability of the drugs that are approved in the standard formulary because it allows the company to continue to make high-quality products encompassed in all covered categories of drugs accessible to plan members. She also stated that removal of drugs should not cause any alarm to members since there are equally suitable products on the formulary at an even lower cost.

Bloomberg was the first media to report the matter on Tuesday. The report indicated that CVC’s clients can be covered for Cialis ED drug known as Eli Lilly’s (LLY) from the 1st of January.

CVC’s shares were high on Monday at around 0.8% in midday trade.

During CVC’s quarterly conference call that took place on Tuesday, the company publicized its general strategy that contains 26 extra products that are going to be expunged from the standard formulary in 2016. The company supported the move because it believes that it will promote clinical integrity, reduce pharmacy costs and smoothly integrating members into the formulary.

Pfizer sent a press release to CNBC stating that the company is committed to availing medicines to patients. It also acknowledged that the company has a strong relationship with CVC and its affiliate Pharmacy Benefit Management company, Caremark. Pfizer also ascertained that its medicines are still available through CVC’s formularies. The company also assured its customers that Viagra will still be readily available in the marketplace and patients who are covered by Caremark can still access the drugs.

Many older people struggle with depression due to a variety of reasons, but getting help for depression can be difficult due to limited mobility or access to care. Now, doctors are using telemedicine to provide patients with outstanding medical care from just about anywhere. Geographic location, mobility matters, and stigma concerns are eliminated or reduced by providing elderly patients with the access to medical care in this manner.

Study Shows Telemedicine Is Just As Effective

A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry found that, of the 204 veterans who participated, the use of telemedicine to provide psychotherapy sessions was highly successful. These individuals were all over the age of 58. They met the qualifications for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The patients were given interactions with doctors using this Internet-based technology. The study found that this form of treatment was considered just as effective as using in-person treatment.

Improving Access to Care for the Elderly

The use of telemedicine can provide outstanding access to patients who otherwise do not have the necessary ability to get care. In some areas, for example in the area where the study took place, an estimated 40% of individuals live in rural areas. They do not have the means to make long distance trips to receive this type of medical care.

This method still has some barriers to overcome. For example, federal and state level law changes are necessary. Providing individuals who may have mental illnesses with mobile tools can also be hard to achieve initially. Texting, though, can be an ideal tool for communications, if seniors have access and the ability to use it. In some cases, studies have found that the use of smartphones can be very helpful in determining if someone is suffering from depressive-like symptoms.

Ultimately, the use of telemedicine can be groundbreaking in providing patients with otherwise limited mobility to gain access to the care they need. It can also provide new access in an area that is often full of stigma especially in older vets.

Consumers looking for a way to get highly priced medications like Viagra are turning to online markets to get it. The problem is some of these locations promise low prices, fast and free shipping, and even no prescription offers, and they don’t provide the real thing. Even worse, these new products can be highly dangerous and made of unknown materials. Viagra is only one example. Others include beta blockers, medications for infections. Many of the top rated name brand drugs that tend to require prescriptions are available inexpensively online.

Most Are Fake Medications

According to the World Health Organization, about half of the illicit online pharmacies selling these products are not selling high quality medications. In most cases, these counterfeit medications are sold with the same brand names and descriptions as well. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in the U.S. released a report that indicates a sampling of 11,000 online-based sellers found that 96 percent of those locations did not meet the organization’s required patient safety standards and practices. They did not meet state or federal laws in the U.S. either. And, the organization went so far as to say that it does not recommend that any consumer purchase medications in this manner.

What Are The Risks?

While selling fake medications may seem harmless from a health standpoint, it is anything but. In fact, this industry, which according to the World Health Organization amounts to some $431 billion a year, could put patient lives on the line. Not only are patients not getting the all important medications they need, but they are also facing the risk of ingesting toxins. Some medications have been found to contain everything from paint to rat poison. These toxic chemicals can not only make health conditions worse, but also put an individual’s life at risk from a single ingestion.

These risks are likely to continue because no universal law system is in place to stop the practice of selling these products online. That leaves consumers at risk and often the only ones to make wise decisions about where they purchase medications.

Approximately one-third of the total Obamacare enrollees are dissatisfied with the extra money they still have to part with to meet their healthcare needs. This is ironic considering that the Obamacare plan was supposed to make healthcare more affordable to more Americans than other insurance plans such as Medicaid or Medicare.

The findings of a survey by Kaiser family foundation that was released on Thursday show that 37% of the people interviewed are strongly or somewhat dissatisfied with the deductions of their plans. The program requires the consumers to pay for certain treatments or doctor visits before the insurer comes to their rescue.

Research shows that citizens on plans that meet the requirement of the Affordable Care Act complain a lot about costs. The issues they usually complain about include skipping doctors’ visits or having difficulties while paying their medical bills. On the contrary, those in plans that do not comply with the regulation do not have such issues. Therefore, the enrollees of the Obamacare plan are unable to get treatment when they need it due to financial constraints.

The greatest discrepancy was observed when the interviewers inquired whether the respondents failed to fill a prescription because it was too costly. 18% of the consumers who are enrolled in compliant plans responded that they avoided filling a prescription while only 6% of those on non-compliant plans confessed to doing the same.

Fortunately, the dissatisfied consumers can take advantage of the telemedicine services available today to overcome the cost issue. Telemedicine entails receiving a doctor’s services without physically going to a hospital. This is done through the phone or any other media of communication that can enable a patient to communicate with a specialist and have their health needs met. This method is especially suitable when treating communicable diseases, when the patient is not too ill to necessitate specialized treatment or when there is a significant geographical distance between the patient and the doctor. Overall, telemedicine is quite cheap because patients do not have to spend any money on transport or waste time while queuing.

A visit to the emergency room of a hospital today gives clear evidence of the need for something to reduce the overcrowded conditions. Doctors and staff are facing a unique problem at that level of medical care. This leads not only to overworked doctors but to an inadequate level of patient care.

A recent survey, submitted by the American College of Emergency Physicians, pointed to the Affordable Care Act as being part of the problem. This was declared by the overwhelming majority of members.

When the Affordable Care Act was introduced in 2010, it was supposed to reduce the number of visits to emergency rooms. Time has shown us that it is actually quite the opposite.

Because the Act brought large numbers of patients into Medicaid, and that agency could now cover some of the costs of care, the emergency room became another alternative for people to use for primary care. To add to the problem of overcrowded emergency rooms, is the lack of doctors to provide the care necessary to handle the increased numbers.

Emerging from this problem is a new addition to the kind of service some doctors are offering. They are now doing many things by phone that used to require an office visit. They often are able to diagnose and sometimes prescribe for some of the less serious problems.

This new brand of medical care, offers benefits to patients as well as doctors. When a patient finds it difficult, for various reasons, to see a doctor in person, telemedicine can be a helpful alternative.
MD Plus is one of the companies now offering this service. Physicians are available every day and around the clock. Knowing a service like this is available can be very useful and comforting.

It may be a good idea to investigate these new services so that one can be accessed if the need arises.

As telecommunications continues to improve, it seems that telemedicine will continue to become more and more common in our lives. For example, HealthSpot has teamed up with Rite Aid to open and operate telemedicine booths in 25 of Rite Aid’s pharmacies.

Like their name suggests, the telemedicine booths are meant to enable their users to interact with physicians without having to head into their practices. Each booth comes with a teleconferencing connection plus instruments such stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, and high-definition cameras, which combine to ensure that HealthSpot’s physicians can approximate an in-person examination for less serious issues. Furthermore, the booth is enclosed, which ensures that the user is comfortable while speaking with said professionals about their issues.

There are a number of reasons to believe that this setup will become more and more popular in the future. For users, there is the matter of convenience since pharmacies are so much more common than medical practices. For pharmacies, it makes economic sense since telemedicine booths can provide a significant portion of the same services as on-location staff in exchange for a small fraction of the cost. After all, each booth takes up a small amount of square footage while needing little more than a cleaning attendant to keep running.

This is supported by initial feedback from the test cities of Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, and Springfield, which has been positive. Furthermore, the fact that HealthSpot has managed to raise $20.7 million from corporate investors since November of 2014 through spring of 2015 suggests that other businesses see potential in this setup.

For now, the telemedicine booths remain limited to the state of Ohio. However, it seems that their operation will see continuous improvement as the collaboration between HealthSpot and Rite Aid continues, which bodes well for their future prospects in the state of Ohio as well as the rest of the United States.

A business that is not lucrative is one that engages in unlawful web-based pharmacy network that has been dispensing unapproved, unfettered prescription drugs internationally for over a decade.

In accordance with The Hindu Businessline, Mape Advisory Group an investment banking firm is co-financing a new enterprise (“Netmeds”), which is set to get underway this week, from the Group of Companies known as Pradeep Dadha. The new online pharmacy venture from the PDGOC’S pledges a 24hour delivery of medication to any place in India, and Pradeep Dadha expects that by 2020 his company will be worth billions of dollars.

Does the Mape Advisory Group want to put their money in a venture that is engaged in unlawful online drug transactions?

LegitScript’s experience with PDGOC is based from one of its prohibited Internet pharmacy ventures: the InternationDrug Mart group of unlawful web-based pharmacies. Amid its other business ventures, Pradeep Dadha and his business acquaintances have run or supplied medicine for many years to many unscrupulous Internet pharmacies, like internationaldrugmart.com. Test buys by LegitScript have found out that in the past the venture has supplied medication to criminal gangs in Russia like the RX-Partners.

Under the pretext of various companies, counting TDP Healthcare Logistic, TDP Technologies and Global Healthcare Limited, Dadha currently has a substantial presence in the telemedicine world, maybe most noticeably via InternationalDrugMart. LegitScript presently scrutinizes over 90 online illegal websites related to Dadha and his many businesses, with many others being closed through our free of charge registrar notification program or concluded through natural wastage, characteristically then put back with new domain names.

Whatever kind of a fine investment an online pharmacy trade may or may not be, it is rare to see one that affirms part of its company model on failing to conform to pertinent laws and directives as a good bet.

Even though most websites ask for a prescription, LegitScript has in the past ordered prescription-only drugs from InternationalDrugMart without a compelling prescription. Additionally, the medicine was ordered to be shipped to states where Dadha’s “pharmacies” are not fully accredited.

Considering the false PDGOC’S online pharmacies adverts , the telemedicine pharmacy eurodrugstore.eu markets itself via its domain name on top of its web content as pharmacy based in the EU. Parts of its advertising is the reassuring photo of “Dr. J. Kayne, pharmacist,” on their website. The photo of a jovial, welcoming and European like pharmacist is meant to convince the site visitors that Euro Drugstore is EU-based. However, there is no “Dr. J. Kayne, pharmacist” it is just a photo purchased online from Getty Images.

The other issue is the medicine itself, it is offered at cut-rate prices to lure the client into purchasing a “generic” form of drug that is said to proffer a similar result as the genuine brand, however, these drugs are not even permitted to be sold. For instance, Kamagra is presented as sildenafil citrate and claimed to be its generic form. Most countries do not approve Kamagra; thus it is almost impossible to get a prescription. Of greater worry is the sale anti-cancer generic drugs: medication that, if prescribed by a genuine doctor and purchased at an approved pharmacy can save a life, but when bought at a website such as internationaldrugmart.eu it could be a risk, as there is no assurance that the medicine is authentic, or it contains the appropriate dosage.

Dadha operated websites, and his acquaintances like to market themselves as a public service that offers cheaper drugs via telemedicine. However, in the real sense they are just for-profit and do not care about the health risks or repercussions posed by illegal, untested and in some cases fake medications. Moreover, from a financier’s viewpoint, it should be an easy call: putting your money in a venture that is involved in unlawful activities should be seen as a gamble.

The Mape Advisory Group should thoroughly investigate InternationalDrugMart, TDP Healthcare, Pradeep Dadha and associated web-based pharmacies.

Obtaining the services of a doctor has been made easy with the inception of telemedicine. The use of this mode of service delivery is gaining popularity because patients can contact their doctors promptly.

CareSimple and MDLIVE have been awarded online patient consultations accreditations. This award was presented to them by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). The program has up-to-date registered over 300 organizations since its launch this year with four among them being accredited.

CareSimple is operated and owned by Carena, Inc. The company provides imperative healthcare services for clients all over California and Washington. A group of therapists and doctors providing behavioral and medical health services across multiple states formed an online telemedicine network called MDLIVE.

As stated by the CEO of ATA, consumers in the current world have increased choices to obtain healthcare services. Telemedicine services have been made available for patients on their smartphone, tablet, computer, laptop and even a telephone. The patients have the ability to choose from a wide range of healthcare providers from their convenient place. Telemedicine has enabled consumers to find only the health care providers who follow all the laws and guidelines in the medicine world.

All U.S. healthcare entities providing online consultations directly to patients that meet particular standards are accredited by ATA. The ATA accreditation program enables patients to view pricing in a transparent manner. This telemedicine platform also allows patients to establish the licensing and qualifications of all registered health service providers.

Also, ATA’s program sets certain benchmarks for all online health service providers to build on. These benchmarks act as reassurance for payers who gain confidence knowing that the virtual services are top quality and safe. Both MDLIVE and CareSimple have been certified as legitimate and reliable telemedicine service providers.

ATA comprises of a diverse membership. Members include professionals, medical institutions, and technology and healthcare companies. All these organizations work together to enhance the quality, affordability, and equity in telemedicine healthcare services all over the world.

Seeing a doctor is easier than ever with the the breakthrough of telemedicine. While telemedicine first began about forty years ago to specialized locations, its usage has skyrocketed and is becoming more and more popular everywhere.

Anybody, from stay at home parents, disabled or elderly persons, people without access to transportation, to someone who just doesn’t have the time to drive out to an appointment, can now talk to a medical professional from their computer or phone, establish a diagnosis, and even have medical personnel make a home visit.

The service of telemedicine provides its users with live consultations via video chat with a board certified doctor. Available 24 hours a day, users can receive medical advice, have medicine prescribed to them, and request a nurse practitioner for any follow up care — without leaving their living room and, to the relief of many, without having to wait in a waiting room. For many people, the waiting and uncertainty can cause some panic, and being able to immediately speak to someone provides peace of mind.

Another benefit of utilizing telemedicine is starting a lasting relationship with a doctor. Many people who move around a lot have trouble with establishing a relationship just to have to move and find another one, but now the same team of doctors and nurses will be able to get to know their patients, even from far away.

In addition, the cost of telemedicine is generally more efficient than an in-person visit. On top of the reduced travel costs, numerous doctors charge less for consultations done this way.

However, despite the many benefits and conveniences, there are a few downsides to telemedicine. A common complaint is the possibility for electronic or network bugs and glitches. For example, some bad weather could interrupt or cancel an online appointment.

Another downside, from the doctors’ point of view, is the lack of being able to physically touch their patients for a full, proper assessment. Many doctors require that patients visit them in-person before agreeing to online appointments.

American Well has recently become a stumbling block to Teladoc’s IPO plans. The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts District court. In this law suit, American Well requested for triple damage compensation and court fees. Also, they request the court to restrict Teladoc from continuing to do business related to the patent.

American Well through their CEO stated that Teladoc has continuously infringed their intellectual property. Though competition is essential for innovation, American Well believes that Teladoc have disregarded their ownership rights. American Well has vowed to protect all their patents and innovations. On the other hand, Teladoc have also vowed to the suit. They informed MobiHealthNews that they had already launched an official appeal to the patent board in matters regarding the patent in contest.

American Well advanced to respond to the relentless efforts by Teladoc to convince U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to nullify certain patents. According to Teladoc, the patent in controversy is invalid. Through their CEO Teladoc stated that they had been providing telehealth services prior to American Well being formed as a company.

Also, the patents are claimed to be too vast containing matters too obvious to be patented. Teladoc maintain that they will continuously defend themselves and consider the legal action as any other ordinary proceeding. They also stated that they will continue to pursue for the invalidation of American Well’s patent in question.

The controversial patent is numbered 7,590,550 that connect service providers with consumers. Included in the lawsuit is Teladoc’s S-1 form and the patent as evidence. It proceeds to highlight the similarities between the two documents. Further, there are tidbits of how American Wells declined a request by Teladoc to license them to proceed with the patent. Appeals by Teladoc to the registrations boards to nullify the patent are seen by American Well that Teladoc knowingly infringed the patent.

Though Teladoc was founded (2001) four years prior to American Wells (2006), the patent was granted in 2007.