Can free video consults make Parkinson's care better?

Why, you might ask, would a hoity-toity medical institution like Johns Hopkins be offering up free Web-based consults for people with Parkinson's disease? To prove that it works. Ray Dorsey, director for the Johns Hopkins Movement Disorders Center, is on a mission to convince America that videochats with doctors are as good or better than the traditional office visit. It's a tough sell, since out-of-state doctors are barred from treating patients remotely in most states, and Medicare doesn't pay for telemedicine delivered to a patient's home. "Right now, Medicare pays more when care is provided in a high-cost environment like a hospital," Dorsey says. "We should stop subsidizing high-cost centers of care, and start subsidizing care in low-cost, convenient, patient-centered locations." So Dorsey has been hacking away at those barriers, data bit by data bit