Clinics in British Columbia operate short hours. Patients often have lineups even before the opening of clinics. Wait times in clinics are also the highest in the country. A telemedicine app is a very convenient way of seeking healthcare service - without stepping out of the home. It also helps doctors to treat more patients in a given time without being physically present at patients.

The government-funded MSP health plan is available in B.C. Unlike many other Canadian provinces, MSP covers telehealth. Meaning, if a patient has an MSP health card, he does not need to pay televisit fees. 

Imposed by the British Columbia state government as a privacy act, PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act) applies to healthcare organizations and startups that collect, use, and disclose personal health information. If you are a public entity, FIPPA does apply to you. 

The operating cost includes app maintenance, APIs fees, customer service, ongoing marketing and staffing cost.

For users having an MSP health card, the government pays you the televisit fee fixed by the government. However, you can make money in several ways from the users who are not covered by any health insurance plan. 

• You can ask them to pay per visit with an additional fee for follow-ups.
• You can ask them to pay a bit more for televisits after midnight, on weekends and on national holidays. 
• You can also introduce a subscription or membership plan for regular users. 
• You can also tie-up with employers to provide televisit coverage to their employees.

With your custom branding, we will deliver the app within a week. If you ask for extra features, we will take a few more days to implement custom changes in the app and test it before delivering it.

That’s the major drawback of PIPA. It only asks entities to safeguard PHI but does not suggest the ways to safeguard PHI. Thus, it is up to you if you want to encrypt the PHI. But you must secure the PHI of patients anyhow and there is no better way than encryption.

PIPA does not ask you to have a signed contract between you and IT service providers.

Telemedicine is the subset of telehealth. Unlike telemedicine which is only used to provide online healthcare services, telehealth also includes many non-clinical uses.