Around 2.2 million Bupa policy holders now have three free appointments with the insurer’s telehealth clinic.
Health insurance giant Bupa has quietly entered the telehealth game, but it swears that it’s not looking for trouble.
One of Medicare’s core principles is that private health companies aren’t allowed to subsidise services for which there is already a Medicare rebate.
Allowing them to do so, in the RACGP’s words, “threatens universality of access to general practice and primary healthcare more broadly”.
It’s this rule that has traditionally barred private health from general practice.
But insurers are still able to offer coverage for the areas that Medicare doesn’t cover.
Telehealth consults where there is no existing prior therapeutic relationship is one such area.
Which is how private health insurer Bupa has managed to enter the GP market.
Today marked the official launch of its digital healthcare platform, Blua, which will be open to about 2.2m Bupa members. They can now access three free video consults via Blua per year.
Blua promises doctors available on-call 24 hours per day, seven days a week for consults that range from general medical advice to repeat prescriptions and referrals.
Bupa clinical director Dr Simon Benson told The Medical Republic that around 50% of the Blua doctors were fellowed GPs.
“[The other half are] a mix between doctors currently in training, doctors who aren’t in training but are in emergency department positions – there is a spectrum,” he said.
“But … all [Blua doctors have been] qualified and have at least three years’ worth of experience in the Australian context with no restrictions or conditions on their registration.”
The health insurer has been running a trial of Blua since the beginning of this year and said around three quarters of patients “resolved” their issue on the initial call.
A further 15% were advised to visit a GP, and 1% were advised to visit emergency.
“The Blua offering provides a real-time doctor-patient consultation in every case,” Dr Benson said.
“Around 92% of those are via video, in stark contrast to the current Medicare figures which show that only 3% [of telehealth consults] are conducted by video.
“When you’re seeing a patient for the first time or out of context, the provision of that service via video is a significant increase in the quality and safety of that particular service.”
Almost all of the presentations among the 600,000-patient trial cohort were for acute conditions, and 48% of patients received a prescription.
One in every two consults took place after hours.
“There’s a shortage of doctors, so there needs to be a pressure release [in the system],” Dr Benson said.
“[Governments] are already doing stuff around urgent care and around pharmacy – this is another way of doing it.
“We have virtual care standards that we have written ourselves and we have shared those with the RACGP in a collaborative process.”
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Dr Benson, who is a GP himself, said the landscape of primary care had changed significantly since the rules on private health and Medicare were first introduced.
“There has to be a question about whether the way that our health system is set up is the right way to lead us into the future,” he said.
“And I’m referring specifically to … the way that private health insurers are able to fund or be involved with healthcare, particularly in primary care.
“We believe that primary care is the future, and we believe that the value of primary care is significantly underestimated.
“Prevention and early intervention is how we offer best care to people, to stop them getting sick and getting admitted.
“It’s also how we also revolutionise the way that healthcare is delivered as a nation.”
Dr Benson called for “discussion and proactive engagement” on the role of private health insurers like Bupa could play in the primary care space.
Earlier this year, Bupa announced that it was going to focus on acquiring multidisciplinary healthcare centres with integrated GP, allied health and pathology services.
It already owns more than 200 dental, optical and hearing clinics.
