Telemedicine, live from your kitchen

Minnesota is a state that tends to be 'ahead of the curve' in healthcare technology development, adoption, aging services, etc.  Here's another example.   Online Care Anywhere, a virtual clinic that Fairview Health Services (created by American Well, started in Hawaii) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota launched Monday, allows Blue Cross employees (the test group) to 'visit' via webcam a physician for a 10 minute visit, 24/7, compared here to a 'Minute Clinic' but one you don't have to drive 30 minutes to.  The co-pay is a routine $20 and records can be sent to your regular physician. What is not particularly cheering is that the purpose of the test is to see whether it saves costs while maintaining quality of care; one wonders what the baseline of that metric will be.  St. Paul Pioneer Press/TwinCities.com article.