Telemedicine

[MechEDoc]

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Anyone do telemedicine and enjoy it or at least not hate it? I'd love to learn more. I don't really want to be a pill mill doc. What's it like?

 

[gutonc]

I have telemedicine as part of my regular (non-EM) practice and I despise it. I only do it now for people who live over 2 hours from my office.

 

[southerndoc]

Didn't someone on here post a while back that some of the telemed companies filled out stuff with the NPDB for quality issues when they quit? Maybe that was posted on WCI.

 

[RustedFox]

Didn't someone on here post a while back that some of the telemed companies filled out stuff with the NPDB for quality issues when they quit? Maybe that was posted on WCI.

That was on here.

 

[thegenius]

Anyone do telemedicine and enjoy it or at least not hate it? I'd love to learn more. I don't really want to be a pill mill doc. What's it like?

Does telemedicine reduce the number of Rxs? Whats the difference if you hand them an Rx or fax it to their pharmacy?
(I guess if you are out of state)

 

[RustedFox]

Guys...

People do telemed for one reason only:

"I need a prescription for the thing that I want."


Stop it .

 

[BoardingDoc]

Anyone do telemedicine and enjoy it or at least not hate it? I'd love to learn more. I don't really want to be a pill mill doc. What's it like?

I did it during COVID when volume in the ED was through the floor. It helped pay bills. It also sucked a lot. I was literally talking about it the other day and the only way to do it and stay sane is to decide upfront that all you care about is money and you're willing to practice like an NP. Zpack and or Prednisone for everyone. No thinking, just give them what they want or what they say they need. Trying to practice medicine like someone who isn't an idiot is frequently very challenging over the phone or a camera.

This is why I don't do telemed

 

[thegenius]

I wonder if you can do telemed without a DEA? At least you aren't writing Rxs for norco and ativan.

 

[southerndoc]

Isn't the pay crappy? Not an hourly rate, but per consult? If you get 1 consult per hour it's not worth it for sure. At a minimum you'd need 4/hour.

 

[BoardingDoc]

I wonder if you can do telemed without a DEA? At least you aren't writing Rxs for norco and ativan.

You can. Teledoc doesn't even allow you to write for controlled substances. That was the only reason I was able to do it as long as I did. I had to fight people about why I wouldn't give them a zpack for their obvious viral illness but I could just say "company policy" when they wanted an Ativan refill.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Isn't the pay crappy? Not an hourly rate, but per consult? If you get 1 consult per hour it's not worth it for sure. At a minimum you'd need 4/hour.

Rate is crap. No idea what it is now but it was 23 bucks a consult when I did it. If you had a steady stream in your queue and you were really fast, you could maybe do 6 an hour. More often it would be 3 or 4/hr so you net less than 100/hr and still have tons of frustrating nonsense. It was only worth it because our ed wasn't making money during COVID so I would do telemed consults while on shift in the ED.

 

[RustedFox]

I wonder if you can do telemed without a DEA? At least you aren't writing Rxs for norco and ativan.

Change your icon back; it was better and I recognized your posts.

 

[MechEDoc]

Sounds like telemedicine roundly sucks.

 

[thegenius]

Change your icon back; it was better and I recognized your posts.

I need a change. Jerry looking down at his guitar is classic, but I think I need something new

 

[emergentmd]

I did Tdoc, During covid it was worth it when they gave $15 per consult bonus so ended up being about $30/consult. I could see 7-8pph and made about $225/hr. Only way I could get this high rate of churn was to cherry pick URI/UTI complaints, gave them a zpak/amoxil/macrobid.

Tdoc changed their model and does not allow you to cherry pick. Any vague complaint could turn into a 30 min complaint.

 

[thegenius]

Change your icon back; it was better and I recognized your posts.

OK I like this one. From a good year too, 1973. Quite possibly their best year ever

 

[MechEDoc]

I did Tdoc, During covid it was worth it when they gave $15 per consult bonus so ended up being about $30/consult. I could see 7-8pph and made about $225/hr. Only way I could get this high rate of churn was to cherry pick URI/UTI complaints, gave them a zpak/amoxil/macrobid.

Tdoc changed their model and does not allow you to cherry pick. Any vague complaint could turn into a 30 min complaint.

Did you find any other companies that were worth your effort? KHealth, Push Health, etc?

 

[emergentmd]

Did you find any other companies that were worth your effort? KHealth, Push Health, etc?

I just started with Tdoc and never tried the other ones. I am sure they are very similar if you want to work on your own schedule. I know some are fixed hours/times which makes no sense for me as I would rather just pick up extra shifts.