The word is out. Healthcare is where the money is. Walgreens, Best Buy and Amazon jumped in hoping to fill in the remaining crevices that were left by the alpha dogs, United Health and CVS. Costco is the most recent retailer to dabble in healthcare. The contribution they are offering its 71 million members, through an arrangement with Sesame, a bargain basement virtual medical experience. Let e show you have meaningless that is.
For a paltry $29 Costco’s customers can get a virtual primary care visit. For $72, they can have a virtual health check-up and for $79, a virtual mental health visit. Everyone knows that the medical market charges much more for these services but the market gives you a shot at getting reasonable care. Anyone falling for these sham visits will have to pay out of pocket since Sesame and its network don’t accept insurance.
A virtual visit for asthma is not worth a shiny penny without a real stethoscope examination of the chest, nor is a virtual visit for an earache without having a look at the eardrum. The biggest scam is the virtual health checkup because that requires a comprehensive head to toe physical examination. A lab panel, also paid out of pocket, with a virtual follow-up is hardly a checkup.
I’m not condemning telehealth altogether. The pandemic confirmed tele-health’s legitimate role under the condition that the patient has an established relationship with the doctor.
the other retailers, CVS and Walgreens, have very different healthcare programs. They try to establish doctor/patient relationships for their customers and take financial risk. Costco’s virtual visit offers nothing more than convenience. It is a purchased commodity, not unlike a roll of toilet paper. The Costco came up with a very low cost service but one of even lower quality. That is not consistent with the Costco model that provides value.
Sadly, our healthcare has descended from “doc-in-a-box” care to virtual “doc-on-a-screen” care.