Most people have experienced this frustrating scenario: You go to the doctor’s office for treatment or prevention services, and when you ask how much services cost, the answer isn’t nearly as straightforward as you hoped.

When you get your bill, either right after your appointment or in the mail, you notice unexpected costs (aspirin is how much?!), not to mention a hefty fee for the doctor you likely saw for a short time.

A big part of owning your health is knowing how much services cost.

That way, you can make the choices that suit your budget as well as ask for available financial resources that’ll assist you with costs or reduce them.

Health care shouldn’t be so complicated. But, unfortunately, it can be. That’s why our Care on Location team wants to make this part of your life as easy as possible. We believe your ability to choose what’s best for your health shouldn’t be affected by how confused you are about how to pay for it. You deserve good health, and you deserve to have access to the people who can help you maintain that health.

If you’d like to meet with one of our health professionals, we’re honored to have you! Here’s a look into what we offer and how much services cost — with nothing extra.

How Care on Location Can Help You: How Much Services Cost

At Care on Location, our mission is to provide telemedicine services and care support that closes health equity and accessibility gaps for all Coloradans, especially Medicaid members.

That means if you’re a Health First Colorado member, Colorado’s Medicaid program, and all of our services and offerings (not including dietary) are completely free!

You’ve got enough surprise bills in your life, so we’re making the money part clear and hassle-free. Check out this chart to see the flat rates you’ll pay for our offerings.

SERVICE	COST (BASED ON SELF-PAY)
Urgent/Primary Care Cough and Colds Nausea and Vomiting Rashes Eye Infections Bladder Infections Back and Joint Pain (and many more!)	$69.99 FREE for Colorado Medicaid members
Tele-PrEP (HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) We can help you complete these HIV screenings every 3 months right at home or we’ll set you up in a local laboratory.	$69.99 FREE for Colorado Medicaid members
Birth Control Counseling and Management	$69.99 FREE for Colorado Medicaid members
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy	FREE for Colorado Medicaid members (Not currently accepting self-pay clients.)
Nutrition	$125 for the first intake visit with our dietician. Following appointments are $100 for 60 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes.

Available Payment Options

If you’re a private insurance policyholder, here’s how it works:

Although we collect your credit or debit card information, we don’t charge you on the day you receive services. We’ll charge the payment option on file for any amount your insurance doesn’t cover, and we’ll also process charges for any co-pays and deductibles.

Self-pay is super simple. You pay the cost(s) reflected in the chart shown above at the time of service.

How Does it Work? What You Can Expect During a Telemedicine Visit.

Online video appointment visits with our skilled care team mean you get to meet with an experienced medical professional who’ll validate all your concerns in a judge-free zone.

We believe each patient is unique — our job is to listen to your concerns and use our expertise to guide you in the right direction for prevention or treatment.

Whether you have an urgent condition or a general medical issue, we’re here to put you at ease from wherever you are. All you need is a stable internet connection through your cellphone, tablet, or computer.

The length of your appointment may vary based on the service you’re receiving, but a typical urgent care visit lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. If you’re new to telehealth or telehealth with Care on Location, here are a few tips to help you prepare and set up for success:

• Check your internet connection. We recommend a strong 4G or better if you’re on mobile. The general recommendation for broadband is a minimum of 1.5 Mbps for both upload and download speeds to successfully display audio and video data.
  
• Test your audio and video beforehand. The last thing you want is to spend your appointment time troubleshooting! Test call a friend before your visit or do an online test.
  Consider using headphones. Not only can headphones help maintain your privacy, but they also allow us to hear each other better!
  
• Prepare your questions ahead of time. Take advantage of every minute you have with your doctor by bringing questions to the meeting rather than asking as you go — in the face of new information, you might forget something important. You can even prepare answers to typical questions, such as a description of any pains you’re feeling or how long you’ve been experiencing an issue.
  
• Have any home medical devices ready. That includes thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, your inhaler, or anything else you use to maintain your health. A good rule of thumb is if it’s important to your health, chances are it’s important to your visit!
  
• Pull up medical reports or pictures. If you want to share something with the clinician that supports your concerns, have it ready on your computer or mobile device when you begin your appointment.
  
• Match your outfit to your visit. You don’t need to dress up — keep your sweats on. But if you have an elbow issue, for example, wear clothing that’ll make your elbow easily accessible, like short sleeves.

Whenever you experience a concerning symptom, come talk to us. We’ll help you navigate what’s often a stressful time and give you the support you need to feel more informed about your body.

Care on!

Care on Location is responding to the current pandemic by stepping in to fill the gap in medical care. Many medical offices have closed or reduced hours, and patients are being strongly encouraged to manage their symptoms at home. As a result of this situation, telehealth has become a key solution to provide the care needed while allowing patients to stay at home. At Care on Location, we have over five years of experience providing telemedicine to our patients, and we now - more than ever - are working to expand telehealth in Colorado.

As a patient, you can access our providers directly through our ‘Get Care’ button. We accept Colorado Medicaid at no cost to you. If you are uninsured or have private insurance with a high-cost deductible, our COVID-19 reduced self-pay price of $69.99 is an affordable option.

With the increase of telemedicine utilization by patients, Care on Location has reason to expand. We’ve hired more providers to ensure that as the country turns to online care, we are prepared to manage higher volumes of patients. 

Our efforts are also being applied on a broader scale across the state. We are currently coordinating with the Office of eHealth Innovation (OeHI) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to address state and community needs. This work has brought changes in state reimbursement and telehealth policy, as well as begun the effort to coordinate a state-wide telehealth response. We have recently rolled out our Test-to-Treat program where a patient presenting with risk factors, a positive home antigen test or PCR test performed elsewhere, and symptoms of less than 5 days duration can be prescribed an antiviral medication that has been shown to reduce hospitalization and death by up to 89%. 

Many patients have been trying to connect with their own primary care providers and wait times to get seen can be too long such that it would be too late to treat COVID. We believe that there is a better answer to this problem. Our software solutions allow you to schedule and perform telehealth encounters through Care on Location when needed. Contact us today to find out more and get treated if you qualify.

In order to create a more comprehensive and convenient experience for you, we have partnered with QuestLabs, Labcorp, and Health Images to be able to get your blood tests and x-rays ordered directly from our telemedicine platform.  Blood test ordering is available from LabCorp from Fort Collins on down to Pueblo, from Quest Labs from Northglenn down to Colorado Springs, and Radiology studies like X-rays and ultrasounds are available through Health Images from Longmont down to Castle Rock.

Here is how it works:

1. You get seen through by one of our medical providers for your medical issue.
2. If medically appropriate, the healthcare provider can order your blood tests or radiology study online.
3. You can go to any of the facilities to get the testing done.
4. The results will be directly sent into our system and we will contact you with those results.
5. We can provide treatment options or recommend further follow-up if necessary.

Here is an example of it at work - Have you injured your ankle and wondering if you need an x-ray?  We are able to assess your likelihood of there being a broken bone. Using well-established medical guidelines, we might be able to avoid the need for x-rays completely.  We will then suggest the best type of ankle support to use, possibly along with crutches.  However, if you do need an x-ray, we can order it online.  You can then go to any of the locations and get the test done.  The results will show up in our system and we contact you with the results.  We can then discuss further treatment and the healing process, and recommend follow-up if necessary.  We can also send our notes to your personal doctor if you wish us to do so.  All this without the crazy expense of ER visits.

Related to Care on Location providing affordable access to care from small businesses throughout the state of Colorado, a recent survey suggests that Workers' Compensation professionals also foresee and increased role of telemedicine in containing the rising cost of medical care for employers.

The Centers for Disease Control has suggested in prior publications that each employer loses about $1600 per employee per year due to absenteeism.  This does not take into account decreased productivity while at work due to what is called "presenteeism" where the employee shows up but is distracted due to medical, behavioral or social issues.  We believe that telemedicine can help both decrease the cost of care for the Workers' Comp industry as well as decrease the cost of absenteeism and presenteeism by providing convenient access to medical providers at a cost that is significantly decreased compared to the standard methods of seeking care.

Use the source link at the bottom of this post to read more of the original article.

Mitchell Survey Reveals More Than 45% of Industry Professionals Believe Telemedicine Will Have the Biggest Impact on the Workers’ Compensation Industry in the Future

By far, the key factor influencing the adoption of advanced technologies according to the survey results is their potential to increase the effectiveness of cost containment efforts (54 percent). Over the last decade, the workers’ compensation industry has faced rising costs while seeking ways to improve service to both injured workers and their employers. In 2016, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) reported that medical benefits on lost time per claim had risen from $9,000 in 2003 to $28,500 in 2015.

Source: Mitchell Survey Reveals More Than 45% of Industry Professionals Believe Telemedicine Will Have the Biggest Impact on the Workers’ Compensation Industry in the Future > www.mitchell.com

A commentary found recently in Forbes magazine lists Telemedicine, Data Sharing (think Apple Watch or Fitbit), and Artificial Intelligence(AI) as the top three trends in Digital Health.  I would agree with all three.  In particular I agree with Telemedicine and AI.  Data sharing requires the patient to participate in collecting the right data and be willing to share the data.  Additionally, it requires the abundant amounts of data to be correctly processed into a usable format and then the recipient of that data must be willing to incorporate that information into their regular workflow and also to know what to do with it.

Telemedicine on the other hand is as easy to accept for patients as Skype or Facetime has become.  There are a multitude of layers of advanced telemedicine beyond that but the acceptance and take off of telemedicine is here.

Artificial Intelligence similar to Data Sharing does require significant amounts of correctly processed data, but the potential rewards of this task is so outstanding that this trend is worth pursuing full-tilt.  I would dare you to find a doctor that is capable of analyzing the full history of research and patient case reports to provide you with a solid recommendation based on your specific situation and all of that data.  These doctors are quite rare, the rest mainly practice based on relatively limited textbook and research article memory.  Many of the recommendations doled out are based on training that may have occurred decades ago and occasionally based on bad information and habit.  AI on the other hand has the potential to digest and codify decades of research and provide well validated advice based on your personal story.  Of course, having a personal connection with a healthcare provider is important.  They need to mediate the connection between you and the AI program, then to help you decide on the correct course of action if multiple options exist (there are usually many options to consider), next to implement that action as appropriate, and lastly to analyze the results to make sure that the outcome is as expected and readjust if needed.

Below is a snippet of that commentary originally penned by Amit Phull.  See the source link below to read the full article.

--Care On

Telemedicine is taking off—for real this time

Remotely diagnosing and treating patients via telemedicine (the use of telecommunication and IT to provide health care) will grow fiercely in 2018 and impact nearly all facets of health care. More doctors will be able to see more patients in a much shorter timeframe, irrespective of their physical locations. As telemedicine adoption expands, it will be driven by stronger electronic health record (EHR) integration, and the growth of urgent care operations.Patients will see big benefits. Telemedicine will provide greater convenience and better access. Patients won’t have to take time away from work to be seen by a doctor, and those located in rural areas—where physician shortages are very real—will enjoy similar access to high-quality care regardless of where they live.

Source: Commentary: The Top 3 Digital Health Trends to Watch In 2018 | Fortune

Everything has it's pros and cons, right?  Urgent Care video visits (telemedicine) is no different.  Take a look at this list to help you understand where you may benefit and where problems may arise.

Pros of Urgent Care Video Visits (Telemedicine)

1. Cost - If you have not gone to the emergency room ever in your life, count yourself lucky.  One of the many problems with our healthcare system is how expensive it is.  Compared to nearly every other form of healthcare access, an urgent care video visit can be an outright bargain.  Most urgent care video consult services run anywhere from $39 - $59 if paying directly.  Compare that to $100+ for a typical office visit, $150+ for urgent care, and 650++ for an emergency room visit for a minor medical issue.  Plus, if you live in a state that requires telemedicine to be covered by your health insurance, you may pay nothing more than a small co-pay or co-insurance.
2. Improved Access to Care -  All across America, from urban environments to rural communities, it can be difficult to get in to see a doctor.  Some difficulties could be physical such as for the elderly that may have problems walking. Other difficulties could be related to geographic location or health provider shortage.  It is estimated there will be a shortage of up to 35,000 primary care physicians by 2025 according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. This shortage adds to longer wait times for appointments which only compounds the other problems which make accessing affordable quality healthcare possible.  With a video visit, many services are available to you no matter what your access pain point is.  In general, as long as you have a computer and internet access, you also have access to a medical provider.
3. Time Saving - Between traveling, sitting in a waiting room, filling out forms, and the actual visit, it is estimated the average in-person doctor visit takes 2 hours of a patient's time.  This is in comparison to the less than 15 minutes of time spent between requesting care and getting care for a video visit(does not include time waiting which is usually at your own house or place of work so is not counted as lost productivity time as you can continue to get things done).  In a world where time is money, the time saved remaining at home or work may equal money saved or earned.
4. Hassle Reducing - Rearranging work schedules, family schedules, arranging family-member's care, and just getting to visits on-time can be added burden for many and anxiety-inducing for some.  With a virtual visit that allows for a life less interrupted, some of the stress of needing and getting to medical care can be reduced or even eliminated.
5. Privacy - For most, it doesn't get much more private than one's own room, home, or office.  Add in a pair of headphones and an already private medical evaluation becomes more so.  Additionally, telemedicine companies are required to follow HIPAA regulations in all aspects of your care which means that even your communication method with the health provider is encrypted before or during transmission.
6. Instantly share x-rays, lab reports - Some of the software of certain telemedicine companies allow for screen sharing.  This allows you, the patient, to share labs, x-rays, or other medical reports you have on your computer with the evaluating provider.  This also allows the provider to share with you medical images, videos, or other education to help you have a better understanding of your health situation.  Overall, this makes for a better informed and less error-prone interaction.
7. Care notes easily available to you and your doctor - After your video visit, your care notes will be entered into a secure electronic medical records system.  However, you can have access to your records through a patient portal.  From there you can print out your records if you desire to keep them or take them to your regular doctor.  Additionally, if your doctor participates in direct messaging, the records can be encrypted and secure messaged straight into your doctor's medical records system.  Lastly, your records can also be electronically faxed to your regular care provider's office.
8. Prescription electronically sent to your local pharmacy - The days of getting a written prescription, dropping it off at the pharmacy and either waiting or coming back hours later to get it are over.  Now, no matter where you are located within the state, the prescriptions can be sent electronically to the nearest participating pharmacy.  Imaging you are on vacation all the way across the state and become ill.  After an urgent care video visit from wherever you are, any needed prescriptions can be sent to the nearest pharmacy.  Much of the stress of finding care in a location you do not know well is alleviated.
9. More time focused on you - Even though a typical video visit lasts less than 10 minutes, that is pure one-on-one time between the healthcare provider and you.  No distractions of others walking into the room, text messages, phone calls.  The focused time-frame gets you a more attentive clinician and allows more time for the clinician to explain things.
10. Insurance will likely cover it - Many states now have what is known as telemedicine parity laws.  In Colorado, this means that private insurers must now pay for telemedicine like they do for regular in-person visits.  You can review Colorado's current telehealth policies on the Center for Connected Health Policy website. Medicare is exempt from this law and still has strict regulations on who can use telemedicine and where they must be located to use it.  How well the insurer will cover the video visit depends on several factors, including whether or not the healthcare provider is "in-network" or "out-of-network" with that particular insurer.

Cons of Urgent Care Video Visits (Telemedicine)

1. Requires your computer to be video capable - Not everyone has a video-enabled device.  While some telemedicine programs allow for telephone and text conversations, this generally is not the most accepted format to conduct medical evaluations in most states. So for those who have a computer without a working webcam, they may be out of luck.
2. Technical glitches - Everyone knows that technology is glitchy.  Throw in a little user-error and things can occasionally get outright frustrating.  This is oh so true for telemedicine technology too.  Wifi and cellular strength play gigantic roles in using the internet in general.  Then try having a fluid, high-definition video interaction over it.  While the technology is often able to compensate for poor connectivity, it also can create frozen, pixelated, or dropped connections.  Prescriptions, medical records, secure text messages, and other components of your care encounter all require interdependent technologies to work together smoothly.  This is not always the case.
3. Some limitations to exam - While a video evaluation can be great for getting an evaluation, due to the limitations of a straight-forward audio-visual communication, some diagnoses simply cannot be made.  Telemedicine providers generally cannot look directly at your eardrums to tell you if you truly have an ear infection or not.  However, there are some cameras on the market that will now allow you to show the evaluating provider your eardrums directly.  Additionally, tests cannot be performed, so many diagnoses are made by a good set of questions and by having you, the patient, participate in helping conduct the exam.
4. Difficult to assess quality of care from certain telemedicine services - While convenience is great, you may not know who the provider is on the other end of the conversation.  Background checks and quality control policies will vary from telemedicine service to telemedicine service.  Some research have suggested that inappropriate antibiotic writing among telemedicine services has been fairly high.  With well researched, implemented, and enforced quality guidelines, your quality of care from a telemedicine evaluation should be the same as an in-person visit for a similar issue.
5. Not accepted as a valid practice model by some doctors - The provision of medical care is steeped in tradition.  This is not always a bad thing.  Human beings in general are generally resistant to change, but medical personnel seem to be more resistant than most.  This became quite evident during the transition to electronic medical records but is just as bad or worse when it comes to telemedicine.  So if you are hoping your regular doctors are going to start using telemedicine soon, I wouldn't necessarily hold your breath.  Many are waiting for the research to completely validate its use, some are simply skeptical of not following tradition and others fear a potential loss of livelihood without considering the overall benefit to patients.
6. It may reduce continuity of care with primary doctors - Patients are increasingly disconnected from traditional primary care practices.  Even those with primary care doctors, many are using telemedicine as a one-off encounter.  Healthcare seems to exist in multiple silos where one place to receive care does not communicate with another.  If you go to more than one source of care, the clinician finds it difficult to obtain or verify prior records, which may result in repeat testing and increased costs.  Telemedicine has not been much better in this regard.  Most companies exist in a silo themselves and often do not communicate your information to the rest of the healthcare system.  Also, many are using telemedicine as their source of care instead of the primary doctor.  This may contribute to the breaking of relationships with primary care doctors and patients, and may also be contributing to the resistance among doctors listed above where they fear that telemedicine companies are taking away their patients.
7. It may not be a provider you know - Somewhat related to quality of care and acceptance, but this is listed separately because some patients do prefer to see a doctor they know.  Patient have developed relationships with a certain healthcare provider and wish to maintain that relationship.  That may be difficult to do, as there is little likelihood that the provider that sees you through a video visit service will be your own doctor.
8. Hours of availability may still be limited - Video visits still require someone to be on the other end of the connection with you.  With a shortage of physicians that is expected to grow, telemedicine may improve efficiency of existing providers, but it does not increase the number of providers.  It still takes manpower to run telemedicine operations and due to most physicians already leading quite busy work-lives, it may be difficult to have access to video care consults whenever you need it.

While there are some potential problems with the current state of telemedicine, overall, the benefits of access, convenience, cost, and quality make obtaining a lower cost telemedicine a worthwhile method of getting healthcare more many.

Care on Location offers urgent care video visits using background-checked experienced providers who have access to research-based nationally accepted care guidelines.