BOSTON -- With busy schedules and long waiting times, getting in to see the doctor isn't always easy.

A Boston-based company says it has the solution to inconvenient trips to the doctor. Its service allows patients to schedule quick, live Web chats with doctors who already participate in their health insurance network, online.

The CEO and founder of American Well is Dr. Roy Schoenberg. He is a former internist who left medicine for what he called the "exciting" opportunities of telemedicine.

"When we put the patient in front of the physician, it's not just that they have a Web chat and a video interaction; the physician has all the information in front of them to care for that patient. The goal is really to use technology to extend the health care system into people's homes," he said.

While online visits have limitations -- doctors can't do physical exams or particularly complex cases -- Schoenberg said there are countless situations in which a 10-minute online consultation with a physician can be helpful, even for residents who live in and around a city like Boston.

"Every other person here is a physician and every other building is a hospital," said Schoenberg. "Still, if you want to talk to a dermatologist, a skin doctor, it's going to take you two months to get an appointment."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Hawaii affiliate, Hawaii Medical Service Association, is the only health plan currently using American Well's technology. A spokesperson for HMSA said that since the program launched Jan. 15, hundreds of members have used it, though they won't release specific numbers yet.

HMSA members pay $10 for a 10-minute online consultation. For $45, people without health insurance, or those who are not HMSA members, can access the same service.

"Everybody was waiting to see how the first state was going to go live with it, and at this point I think it's safe to say that the flood gates have opened . You're going to see a lot of online care in 2009," said Schoenberg.

Schoenberg said his program is compatible with all the currently used forms of electronic medical records, or EMRs.

While he cannot discuss which other health plans or states may be signing on with his service in the coming months, he does expect patients in New England to have the option by the end of the year.