Even if more and more patients return to face-to-face visits, insurance companies continue to introduce more health plans around telemedicine. Yesterday, Aetna announced that it will provide a nationwide virtual primary care plan based on Teladoc’s care model.
The CVS Health subsidiary is using Teladoc’s physician care team to develop a new plan that will also include providers covered by the Aetna network and CVS Health services. Aetna plans to provide it to self-financing employers.
The program is called Aetna Virtual Primary Care and includes an initial visit to a virtual health doctor, with whom the patient will maintain an ongoing relationship, just like a traditional primary care doctor. They can also use other virtual services such as consultation, dermatology consultation and emergency care. Patients can also send messages to the virtual nurse care team to find local providers, visit laboratories, and test.
Of course, not all health problems can be solved through the screen. Aetna says that for patients who need to see the provider in person, as long as they are in the network, they can do so without a referral. The insurance company has also introduced a concept that has been tested in some of its newer plans by guiding some patients to receive free services in CVS’ in-store clinics.
Since multiple insurance companies offer virtual primary care plans for the first time, it will be interesting to see how companies and patients accept them. Although the pandemic has undoubtedly emphasized the importance of virtual care as an option, given that face-to-face visits have risen from the pandemic’s low point, it is unclear how many patients want to use it as a primary means of obtaining care.
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