The two-year commitment to my cellular carrier ends soon, and I've been evaluating our renewal options. We've been on a family plan for some time now and the different needs (and wants) of each family member makes the process a bit more complicated.
Inevitably, the process boils down to two components. Selecting the right plan, minutes and features is the easy part. Finding phones that satisfy each member of the family (and which fit our budget) is always more challenging.
Mom wants a basic phone. My daughter wants one of those convergence phones that is a telephone, texting keyboard, MP3 and video player all rolled together, and, "Dad, these are my color choices -- in order -- and I definitely do not want a pink phone!" Believe it or not, those two are simple choices.
This year, I am struggling with which device I want. In the course of my research, I've taken a shine toward the Palm Pre. It does all of those things you'd expect of a modern PDA. In fact, most of these PDA-type devices sport a very similar feature set. Yet this phone has captured my attention for a very different reason. It sports a new operating system which Palm has aptly named "Web OS."
Remembering the old business school dictum that you first need to be sure you are creating a solution that "does the job" the client needs done, the Pre's designers determined that users want to interact with their data, not with their devices. Moreover, they want to control the data, regardless of where it resides. Mathias Duarte, who designed the GUI for the device, told an audience at a recent Consumer Electronics Show that, "The data is independent of the device, and that's the way it should be."
Being Web-centric allows us to be device independent and that independence allows the user to be in control. Make no mistake about it; control is the lifeblood of baby boomers. The number of baby boomers in America is estimated at 78 million. Boomers who reach age 65 in 2011 can expect to live an average of another 18 years.
The boomers' need to control their environment, combined with the generation's sheer numbers and life expectancy, will be a market mover in ways that are only now beginning to become apparent. That market force is beginning to extend itself into the medical realm just as surely as Palm's Web OS provides the on-demand, independent environment to consumers in their marketplace.
Cultural shift for health care
Another tech company you may have heard of is heavily involved in studying how unified communications can be applied for health care purposes. Chris Sullivan, Microsoft's national director of U.S. health care provider solutions, quoted in Healthcare IT News (Jan. 2009), says, "Telemedicine is a good one (area) for us with regard to where the market is going, not just for what we offer in the area of unified communications but also for the overall trend of consumer-based health care. There is more investment toward connecting consumers with health care professionals and we are providing the platform. We are focusing on traditional services that fit with telemedicine, such as specialist referrals, patient consultation and remote patient monitoring."
Microsoft's "Health Vault" allows consumers and providers to store information and make connections among their own communities as well as other third-party entities. "Consumers have come to expect this level of access with other businesses, such as banks. This represents a cultural shift for health care and it will continue to evolve into the future," says Sullivan.
Beyond any "cultural shift," it represents an extremely lucrative field for Microsoft and others. Boomers are living longer, managing multiple chronic conditions and expecting to remain in control and in their homes, all of which makes telehealth and telemedicine a short-term mother lode for tech companies.
Helping out Hawaii
There are no shortage of players who have identified both the need and the opportunity it represents. In January, American Well Inc. began to offer a service that allows patients to communicate with their physicians by phone, text chat or by using online video. According to The Wall Street Journal (March 5, 2009), the doctors can view patient personal health records through Microsoft's Health Vault and can even prescribe over the Web.
American Well's service is currently available only in Hawaii through the Hawaii Medical Service Association. HMSA's patients pay $10 for a 10-minute visit. Uninsured patients pay $45 for a 10-minute consultation. While some patients may focus on the immediacy and control this provides, in Hawaii -- and ultimately in other locations -- it solves the problem of patients for whom physicians are not easily accessible due to geography. In Hawaii, the patient and doctor could be on different islands.
Mike Stollar, vice president of marketing for HMSA, says, "Considering our geography we have some major issues. Except for Honolulu, we're a rural state and we have a lot of remote areas that are disconnected because of water." Interacting with the system is easy and hassle-free, two of the hallmarks of any consumer-oriented encounter.
Stollar, quoted in the March edition of Managed Care magazine, outlines the process: "To arrange a visit, all a person has to do is go online at HMSA and enroll, just as one would do when signing up for an eBay or Amazon account. You go through the legal checklist and then you're in. Once in, you have things available to you. You can review your health summary based on claims data. There are certain assessments you can go through. Microsoft Health Vault is a partner. If you want a health record of your own, you can enter information for that and then identify to the system that you have an EMR and that will be shared in the system."
Convenience gives way to establishing the comfort level patients need to embark on this new way of interacting with the system. According to Stollar, "You can look for doctors who speak a common language or share ethnicity. And then, if you wish, right then and there you can choose a provider and have a conversation."
Online retail clinic
Carlton Doty, research director at Forrester Research, calls it "connected convenience." He crystallizes the entire concept, saying, "If you think about a Minute Clinic or other retail walk-in clinics, they represent easy access to routine health care services. I view American Well as an online version of a retail clinic -- only it involves a physician rather than a nurse practitioner."
SwiftMD Inc. launched its services in November 2008. Patients in New York and New Jersey pay a one-time $18 registration fee and $9 a month to speak to a doctor over the phone or through an online video chat. The consultation itself, usually set up within a half-hour, costs $59. We've previously reported on the Dallas-based TelaDoc, which provides its members with a similar service.
American Well says it will launch in other states later this year. SwiftMD says it is opening availability in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Microsoft is working to continue to leverage its platform in ways that mirror the myriad manner of consumer interactions happening today, all the while seeking opportunities to partner with companies to create Web 2.0 solutions.
Pioneers paving the way
It seems clear that telemedicine and telehealth are the wave of the future. The wave, fueled by boomers and other consumers who want information and solutions on-demand will grow. The companies we've mentioned here are pioneers. We all know what comes after the pioneers: Settlers and communities. In the fight for the hearts and minds of health care consumers, we're talking about very 21st-century stuff.
Yet, as I write this column, I have been unable to get the voice of one particular boomer out of my head. In 1963, a certain Mr. Robert Zimmerman, better known by his "nom de song," wrote an anthem for another time that resonates today in a very different way: "The times they are a-changin'."
Readers may write to David Saltzman at Carolina Care Plan Inc., 201 Executive Center Drive, Columbia, SC 29210. He is a past president of NAHU and has been a health, disability, life and employee benefits broker for more than 25 years. He is director of the large group segment for Carolina Care Plan.
From the June 01, 2009 issue of Life Insurance Selling • Subscribe!
