USA Today has a short piece on aparently text-based ‘virtual house calls’ that are billable: ‘…Proponents say virtual house calls — meant to take place within a doctor-patient relationship established in person — are designed to replace unnecessary office visits, not quick phone calls or e-mails that still will be handled for free.

Patients log onto a secure Web site. If required to pay, they provide a credit card number and answer questions about their complaint. A doctor reviews the answers and replies, generally within a business day. If the doctor decides the patient needs to come in after all, there usually is no charge for the Web exchange…