Biomedical Informatics 4th Edition by Edward Shortliffe, James Cimino

Exercise 2

There are many controversies regardingreimbursement for telemedicine ser-vices. Imagine that you are negotiatingwith an insurance carrier to obtain reim-bursement for a store-and- forward tele-medicine service that you havedeveloped. The medical director of thesecond insurance payer states:"Telemedicine seems like 'screening'rather than a mechanism for deliveringhealth care. This is because you are sim-ply using technology to identify patientswho need to be referred to a real doctor,rather than providing true medical care.Therefore we should only reimburse avery small amount for these screeningservices." In your opinion, is this a legit-imate argument? Explain.