OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent report on the pilot project conducted by Oklahoma City-based Doctor On Call, a program that provides immediate 24-hour telephone access to Board Certified physicians via a toll-free number, reiterated the findings of an earlier survey: the program was a tremendous success.
Launched last November in conjunction with the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the six-month pilot program was offered in an eight-county region of that state. More than 30,000 Medicaid households were provided telephone access to a physician information network. The service averaged 30 to 40 calls a day in both English and Spanish. By providing the Medicaid population immediate access to Physicians, the pilot area showed a 24 percent decrease in emergency room visits.
“In light of the apparent success of ‘Doctor On Call’ in South Carolina, I am intrigued by the implications this program could have for health care elsewhere,” said Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry. “We have serious challenges in health care as a result of large numbers of uninsured and underinsured. As the uninsured crowd our emergency rooms and subsequently trigger higher health costs, it is important for us to examine how best to improve access to health care and reduce costs. ‘Doctor on Call’ appears to hold promise in that regard,” Governor Henry said.
The findings of the recent report, “A Review of the Doctor On Call Statistical Results from the South Carolina Project,” by the University of Oklahoma’s Robert C. Dauffenbach, PhD Economics, indicate that medical claims had dropped 13-14 percent by the end of the Doctor On Call pilot project. Statistically, the number of people using the service steadily increased with their familiarity of the program’s benefits.
In the conclusion of his report, Dauffenbach says this drop in medical claims indicates that, if offered to Medicaid recipients nationwide, the Doctor On Call program could save the federal government an amount of “untold and difficult to estimate, magnitude.” His calculations indicated the savings could reach as high as $11 billion annually.
“It’s important to bear in mind that our Medicaid pilot project only tracked emergency room visits. However, we believe implementation of our service would help reduce time away from work, encourage greater use of primary care and help relieve the overcrowding of the emergency room,” Karl Nigg, CEO of Doctor On Call, said.
“The fact that we exceeded expectations with our pilot project is particularly exciting,” Nigg added. “This was accomplished despite the limited marketing campaign to introduce and promote the pilot, or to utilize the media to help educate the Medicaid population about our program. If bolstered by a marketing campaign, the results offered by Doctor On Call are likely to be truly astounding.”
This likelihood is borne out by both studies on the pilot project. The survey, conducted by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates of Oklahoma City, revealed that those Medicaid beneficiaries who used the Doctor On Call service were extremely satisfied and planned to use it again. “They say that it saved them from making an unnecessary trip either to an emergency room or a doctor’s office, and found that the doctors answered their questions. They believe it is an important service to continue,” Pat McFerron, director of survey research for Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates, wrote in his report.
Specifically, the survey indicated that 83 percent of those who used the 24/7 physician information network felt that Doctor On Call adequately answered their medical questions. Two-thirds (66 percent) of both men and women indicated that Doctor On Call helped them avoid either an emergency room or a doctor’s office visit. Of those who used the service on three to five occasions, 92 percent say it saved them a medical trip.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of the pilot program’s success was that a full 90 percent of those who used the service said they would use it again. And 86 percent described Doctor On Call as either extremely important or very important.
“While the success of our pilot project certainly comes as no surprise, it is extremely gratifying to see how deeply people value our services,” Nigg said. “With emergency room visits climbing at an annual rate of 14 percent when more than 43 million Americans are without health insurance, Doctor On Call offers a vital and cost-effective alternative to unnecessary and costly emergency room visits for both the public and private sector. And, since Medicaid enrollees have a higher rate of emergency department usage (an average of 64.3 per 100 enrollees, compared to 38 out of every 100 individuals in the general population) than any other group of Americans, our Medicaid pilot project proved the Doctor On Call service is one solution to the rising costs of healthcare.”
Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates surveyed 300 Medicaid users of the Doctor On Call Service in the pilot program area. The results of this study have a 5.6 percent (plus or minus) margin of error.
For more information on Doctor On Call visit http://www.doctoroncall.com/ .
Doctor On Call
CONTACT: Cyndy Hoenig, +1-405-507-6296, for Doctor On Call
Web site: http://www.doctoroncall.com/