My wife, Kristine, got sick last weekend with strep throat. Since it was the weekend, the office was closed for the doctor she would normally see. She then went to urgent care in order to get seen, but the wait was 3 hours when she arrived.
While she was waiting, she was talking with her mom on her cell phone and her mom suggested checking out a "tele-doc" feature that many insurance carriers are now offering.
We have Blue Shield health insurance and do have this tele-doc option. In order to use the tele-doc service Kristine had to fill out an online application, complete a health survey, and then submitted her "case" to the doctor by taking a picture of her throat. A doctor then called back within 15 minutes, had a short conversation with Kristine to confirm a few things and talk through the symptoms. Once that was done, the doctor then called in a prescription to our local pharmacy and Kristine went over and picked it up right away.
Wow, how easy was that! The best part was that they only charge $5 for the service! What a savings from having to use the urgent care center that was going to take many hours and cost many multiples higher!
I am not sure how long this tele-doc service has been around or how many insurance carriers are providing this option, but it sure was fast and cheap which are adjectives I would never really use when discussing anything medical related!
I recommend everyone look into this and see if their insurance carrier offers something similar!
Since Kristine was out of commission, I had a few days of hard work watching and caring for both kids. Here is a picture from a brief moment of calm while I was on duty where Kristine was resting, my son was playing happily, and my daughter was sleeping in a swing... The rest was chaos of course!
Brian
