American Well Launches Online Care For Providers, Bringing Telehealth to Practices Nationwide

New offering allows care encounters with patients at home or work, using Web or phone, while supporting shift toward Accountable Care contracts

Boston, MA — April 19, 2011 — American Well™ today unveiled Online Care For Providers, a new offering in its Online Care Suite that enables physician practices nationwide to offer live, on-demand consultations to patients in their homes or workplaces, using the Web or phone. As a result, physicians can now incorporate telehealth services – once limited to provider-to-provider communications between major medical centers – into their daily patient care, while positioning their practices for growth in the changing healthcare landscape.

The system was already honored with a gold medal at the 2011 Edison Best New Product Awards™. Providers can learn more about and even order the solution through a new website, www.OnlineCareForProviders.com

“Healthcare is in the midst of unprecedented transformation,” said Roy Schoenberg, MD MPH, CEO of American Well Systems. “With Online Care For Providers, American Well is the first to bring a complete telehealth solution into the hands of every healthcare professional. As intuitive and secure as online shopping or banking, it is accessible to providers and patients from anywhere and at any time, without the expensive equipment or painful operational hurdles of traditional telemedicine.”

The launch of Online Care For Providers coincides with a growing body of research that documents the clinical and financial efficacy of telehealth for patient care. Recent studies have noted its benefits in a wide range of areas, including preventive care, cancer, stroke, dermatology, and behavioral health, with applications stretching throughout the spectrum of clinical subspecialties and supporting allied disciplines. Meanwhile, patient awareness and demand for telehealth services is also growing, with a recent study from Euro RSCG finding that 77 percent of consumers look to engage with their doctors, live, online.

Online Care For Providers equips physician practices with new capabilities, including:

• The ability to offer live, on-demand or scheduled Online Care encounters using two-way video, secure text chat, and/or phone – supporting rich, highly personal, and clinically meaningful interactions. These encounters take place from wherever the provider, clinical staff, and patient find most convenient, at home or in the office.
• The automatic capture of a complete record of each Online Care encounter, which may be imported into leading EMR packages, supporting clinical documentation standards and continuity of care.
• Specific features that help physicians to increase revenue from patient interactions that are currently not reimbursed, such as phone calls or e-mails – or to offer entirely new services, such as specialty consults and concierge medicine.

“Online Care For Providers is a groundbreaking tool to support providers in growing and modernizing their practices,” said Schoenberg. “It also provides a strong foundation for those practices preparing for Accountable Care contracts. On an individual level, providers can care for and follow up with at-risk patients in a more clinically effective and cost-effective manner, with simpler administration. On an organizational level, ACO practices can use Online Care to connect with one another and instantly cross-utilize the breadth of their services – helping to contain patient care within an ACO’s walls and bring its efficiencies to life.”