New Jersey Blues launches online consultation at physician urging

The pilot program will cover existing patients and reimburse at a rate similar to that paid for a low-level office visit.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Feb. 3, 2003.

As part of a six-month pilot project with eight physicians at two group practices, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is paying for online consultations on nonurgent matters with patients for whom a doctor-patient relationship exists.

The plan declined to disclose how much it is paying, but said the level of reimbursement for an online visit is similar to what it pays for a low-level office visit.

Horizon agreed to participate in the pilot after being approached by James Barr, MD, a family physician at a three-doctor family practice in Neshanic Station, N.J., and chief medical director of Central Jersey Physician Network, a 110-doctor IPA, said Nicholas Bonvicino, MD, Horizon's senior medical director.

The health plan also agreed to participate because it wants to determine whether the online service "could improve the quality of care our members receive and hopefully reduce medical costs simultaneously," Dr. Bonvicino said.

Last year Blue Shield of California decided to reimburse for online consultations after finding that the service potentially can yield savings of more than $1 per member per month.

To initiate an online consultation, participants in the Horizon program must access the Web site of MyDocOnline Inc., a Round Rock, Texas, firm owned by Aventis Pharmaceuticals, either directly or via their physicians' site. About 2,500 members are eligible to participate in the pilot.