With Covid-19 being around the world, all the major insurance companies continue to allow a charge to be raised in respect of remote consultations.
That hasn’t always been the case.
In the pre-Covid days, some insurance companies would not allow you to charge for them.
Vitality is the company that immediately springs to mind. This is not a criticism of Vitality for it is up to them what they allow a charge for or not.
But it is worth just stepping back and thinking about the demand for remote consultations.
Many consultants were previously not in favour of them anyway.
Lockdown.
When the lockdown was introduced early in 2020, remote consultations were seen as the way to continue with a patient’s care. Very much a case of needs must!
What becoming disconcerting however were the number of people who claimed they were the future.
However…
It’s not the consultant who ultimately has the say on whether remote consultants are the future or not.
It is the patient’s appetite for them which dictates their future.
For the same reason as the consultant ie lockdown, patients were happy to have a remote consultation.
But what will happen when Covid-19 is finally defeated?
In my view some patients WILL be happy to continue with remote consultations. But many won’t.
There is, however, an additional factor.
Fee Paid.
As at today, most insurance companies pay the same for a remote consultation as a face-to-face consultation. That has not always been the case.
For example: BUPA paid significantly less for a remote consultation pre-Covid.
That insurance companies allow the same fee to be charged is purely a PR exercise in my view.
It would have looked terrible to reduce fees in respect of remote consultations during a pandemic.
But consider what will happen AFTER Covid-19.
Fee Reduction.
I will not be at all surprised to see the fees for remote consultations reduced significantly post Covid.
Coupled with a falling demand from patients too, then remote consultations may not be so attractive to a private consultant as they are now.
pete@medicalhalthcaremanagement.co.uk