After a two year pilot study, Group Health Cooperative (Seattle, WA) is converting 26 of its clinics in Washington and Idaho to “medical home” models, where telemedicine handles appointments, test results, and patient monitoring.  Economies from telemedicine allow physicians to spend more time with their patients-enough so, that medical home phyisicans in this HMO can reduce their case load from 2,400 patients to 1,800, while demonstrating significantly reduced ED visits and fewer hospitalizations.  MORE