CalPERS Announces Telemedicine Project
CalPERS on Tuesday announced a telemedicine program that will be available beginning Jan. 1, 2006, to the nearly 90,000 CalPERS members who live in rural areas, the Sacramento Bee reports. The program will facilitate consultations between patients and their primary physicians with specialists in cardiology, dermatology, pediatric neurology and psychiatry at the University of California-Davis, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and other locations.
CalPERS will be the first employer in the state to provide full telemedicine coverage.
Blue Cross of California is administering the program and has about 60 telemedicine sites in rural counties, including Del Norte, Lassen and Imperial counties. The program is intended to expand rural CalPERS members' access to medical specialists without requiring them to travel long distances (Chan, Sacramento Bee, 9/21).