American Well adds WellPoint (US)

WellPoint, the largest health benefits company in the US, announced an agreement with American Well to adopt their Online Care physician-to-patient webcam/telephone service at AHIP 2010.  It will be available in ‘select markets’ (presumably TBD) in 4th Quarter 2010.  Release.  At the Health 2.0 blog, Matthew Holt interviewed American Well’s CEO plus executives of two early adopters of their technology–BCBS Minnesota and Optum Health.  The posted video is 10 minutes; unfortunately the sound is largely poor to inaudible due to background noise.  When asked if the aggressive forecasts on telehealth/telemedicine are correct, CEO Schoenberg carefully demurred, insisting that they are ‘laying foundations’, ‘setting up the pipes’ and building infrastructure to a 2013-4 horizon.  Guess we need shovels and the cement mixer! Wink