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There were mixed feelings about the use of telemedicine for consultation purposes as some doctors are concerned about the reimbursement.

The team from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will meet with the four insurance companies on island to persuade them to offer reimbursement to doctors for telemedicine consultations. All the consultations between patients on Guam and the Los Angeles-based medical center has been done freely so far. The team met with people from Moylan's NetCare Life and Health Insurance and TakeCare Insurance yesterday. He will meet with those from Calvo's SelectCare and StayWell Guam Inc. tomorrow. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has offered a number of services to patients on Guam ranging from cancer, orthopedic, and knee and hip replacements. He said if the insurance companies agree to forms of reimbursements, it would give doctors at the Los Angeles facility more stimulus to continue telemedicine consultations with the island.

Telemedicine facilities can be accessed at Guam Memorial Hospital and at Guam Radiology Consultants. According to GMH spokesman Connor Murphy, there is yet to be an initiative to use their telemedicine facility. Dr. Thomas Shieh, president-elect of the medical association, said Guam should really strive to pay for such consultations. "Cedars-Sinai is really about modified specialties. They have a lot of sub-specialists there. Those are the very subspecialties we need on Guam," Shieh said. "I think teleconsultations should be reimbursed because doctors on the other side are providing a service. You save the patient money because the patient doesn't have to fly off the island to get that consultation," he added. "I don't think Cedars-Sinai can sustain that because they have to pay their doctors on the other side for spending the time for taking care of the patients here in the consultations." Koerner said local doctors now need to become more interested and eager about the use of such a facility. "The doctors here have to be enthusiastic about it. That's one of the hardest things to overcome, that is, a doctor to begin to use something they never used before," Koerner said.

He said local doctors need to overcome that fear because there are some procedures that cannot be done on the island. "Guam has good primary and secondary care, but when you get into some of the tertiary and the coronary specialties, they can't do them here," he said. The Cedars-Sinai team is on the island to continue to nurture the relationship they have with the local medical community. This is the team's fifth visit in the last three years. Koerner is joined on this trip by Donna Bias, nurse coordinator for Guam patients that are served by Cedars-Sinai, and Joe Aguon, a consultant to the program.

Source: Pacific Daily News

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