Doctors struggle to pay bills, telemedicine isn't helping
CENTREVILLE, Ala. — One morning in March shortly after the coronavirus shutdown, Dr. John Waits was at his clinic at Cahaba Medical Care in rural Bibb County. The clinic has seen a 30-40% reduction in revenue.
“We normally have 16 patients in a morning; (that morning) we had four,” he said. “And two of them were no-shows.”
One of the remaining patients, a woman in her 80s, called the office because she couldn’t figure out how to use Google Hangouts, the platform used by the clinic’s telemedicine system. The patient had an iPhone with video capability but couldn’t figure out how to open the link. Waits eventually called the woman on FaceTime and did the appointment that way.
But it’s far from ideal. “The easiest thing to do would be to FaceTime everybody, but it’s not as secure,” said Waits’ partner, Dr. Laci Smith. And letting patients have a doctor’s cell number creates its own set of challenges. “If I’m off call for a week, I don’t want them leaving voicemails on my cell phone if they have chest pain.”
Read more: https://www.gadsdentimes.com/news/20200426/doctors-struggle-to-pay-bills-telemedicine-isnt-helping
