June 16, 2010 United States of America

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With rising health care costs, lack of Doctors, Telemedicine may be the only viable solution to the health care crisis.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) June 16, 2010 — Press Release

Contact: James McMann, 702-516-4047 support@ustelemedicine.com

For Immediate Release June 16,2010

Telemedicine For Millions is the Answer to Many Health Care Problems

(Beverly Hills) There are simply not enough General Practitioners and Family Doctors in the USA. Most people seeking primary care are treated by specialists, or Emergency Rooms and incurring greater costs to insurers. There is no relief in sight as only 6% of medical school graduates are seeking specialties in General Medicine and rural areas will continue to be woefully underserved as only 1% of the same graduates will be heading to rural America.

Cost are rising at every level of health care. The outpatient net costs increased by 8.7 percent to $1,824 in 2009. Within the outpatient segment, facility costs increased 12.8 percent to $808 and professional costs increased by 5.7 percent to $1,017. The trend is toward outpatient care.

Of the 62,000,000 Americans who used medical services in 2009, 75% or 46,500,000 of these ambulatory people were seeking outpatient primary care for some chronic condition. Because there is a lack of family and general practice physicians, most of these people sought this basic medical intervention at hospital ER facilities. This caused a 12.8% spike in facility charges, paid by insurance, the self-insured entity or government agency.

Here are some undeniable facts concerning telemedicine: Firstly, its implementation reduces costs and expands the patient base. Telemedicine doctors are generally not burdened with increasing overheads associated with operating a brick and mortar office. Medical fees are therefore reduced, rather than inflated to cover costs.

Secondly, telemedicine reduces incidence of ER visits and reduces hospitalization rate. In many cases, telemedicine prompts greater healing, wellness and health, than the traditional office visits. If remote sensing devices are used, the patient is physically involved in managing their care on a more consistent basis. This heightens the awareness and education of managing any disease or condition.

Most telemedicine efforts in the USA to-date have mostly been body part specific or focused on a particular disease or condition, but, the true strength of telemedicine is the application of “whole body” medicine such as practiced by a general or family physician. Those are the greater needs and those are the issues clogging hospitals and increasing costs.

Some American efforts in providing actual “whole-body” telemedicine medical care have begun with great success; US Tele-Medicine is a Beverly Hills based provider operating in eight states and focusing efforts on self-insured entities, government agencies and providing care for what they call “lifestyle” chronic health conditions. US Tele-Medicine patients use consumer operated devices which measure their vital signs and uses a wireless platform to send that data to the patient’s file on the US Tele-Medicine EMR. They list about 20 ailments, diseases, and conditions found to be responsive to telemedicine care. The list and more information about this group can be found at: www.epatienthealthcare.com/diagnosis.

The Veterans administration has about 34,000 patients with devices reading their vital signs and that has cut back on ER visits, hospitalizations, increased health overall and 86% of the participants are satisfied (www.va.gov). Delta airlines will be offering telemedicine to its 20,000 employees.

Gideon Ulumin, the US Tele-Medicine Director of Strategic Affairs said, “Health Care When You Need It and When You Want It, is the operational philosophy at US Tele-Medicine and exemplifies what telemedicine is all about.” Said Ilumin, “Considering just economic factors, people no longer need to lose a day of work, school, or income just to visit a doctor,” says Ilumin, “in addition, telemedicine may provide a key to the coming health care crisis.”

The coming health crisis? “With an additional 30 million persons soon coming on to the health care rolls,” explained Ilumin, “and continuous increase in medical costs, telemedicine is quickly becoming one of the only viable and current alternatives to deal with General medical needs.”

In a broad overview of the health care industry and taking into account the lack of general medical physicians, rising facility costs, uncertain Health Care Reform laws, 30 million new patients, Medicare cutting Doctors payments, the growing disparity of medical services between urban and rural areas, there does not appear to be much choice, except to embrace telemedicine. And do it quickly.

US Tele-Medicine Patient Web Site: www.epatienthealthcare.com

US Tele-Medicine Corporate Web Site: www.ustelemedicine.com