What It Is
LiveHealth Online, Anthem Blue Cross’ new service available to Guild members starting October 1, 2016, allows you to video chat with a doctor online for only $20. The doctor is licensed in whatever state you are contacting them from, and he/she has the ability to prescribe (subject to some limitations on certain classes of drugs). You just need a phone, tablet or computer equipped with video and an Internet connection.
Getting Started
You log onto LiveHealth Online, click “Get Started”, and you will be presented with a list of available physicians, along with a photograph of each doctor. If you click on a physician’s image you will see their professional background and accomplishments. You can also look at what other patients had to say about the doctor.
LiveHealth Online also offers dedicated LiveHealth Online apps for your cell phone, tablet, or computer. They can be found here:
Once you select a physician, you will be presented with a medical history form to fill out, and when it is completed, you will be talking face to face with the physician you selected in ten minutes or less. The doctor will have reviewed your medical background, and ask you the details of your symptoms. They can see and hear you; you can see and hear them. If the doctor thinks it is warranted, he/she can prescribe medication and have it sent to a pharmacy near you
If you are traveling, perhaps in someone else’s home when you need medical assistance, or don’t have this information with you for some other reason, you will find all the necessary contact information on your new Health Fund ID card (which you will be receiving shortly, if you haven’t received it already).
How It Works – A Practical Demonstration
Why You Might Want To Use LiveHealth Online
Telemedicine has been used by Doctors Without Borders and high-end consulting specialists around the world for some time now. It is only recently that health providers realized Telemedicine services might be useful in more widespread circumstances.
LiveHealth Online is not a replacement for your personal physician, but if you’re traveling, or it’s after hours, or you don’t feel well enough to go out, instead of urgent care or an ER, you now have the option of seeing a doctor by using LiveHealth Online. That means no hours-long wait, or having to leave the house even though you feel lousy. In addition, if there is a serious problem, the doctor will stay on the video call with you until an ambulance arrives. The fee for this service is a flat $20, and if you do have to go to an ER or urgent care center, there is no charge at all. In addition, when the session is completed you will get a record that you can provide to your personal physician.
If you’d like to learn more about telemedicine, click here to read one writer’s personal experience with this new program.