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“MY CHART”
By AMANDA SEITZ
By Staff Reporters
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E-Mailing your Physician may Cost You like Your Attorneys!
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The next time you message your doctor to ask about a pesky cough or an itchy rash, you may want to check your bank account first — you could get a bill for the question.
Hospital systems around the country are rolling out fees for some messages that patients send to physicians, who they say are spending an increasing amount of time poring over online queries, some so complex that they require the level of medical expertise normally dispensed during an office visit. Patient advocates, however, worry these new fees may deter people from reaching out to their doctor and that they add another layer of complexity to the U.S. health care system’s already opaque billing process.
“This is a barrier that denies access and will result in hesitancy or fear to communicate and potentially harm patients with lower quality of care and outcomes at a much higher cost,” said Cynthia Fisher, the founder of Patient Rights Advocate, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that pushes for hospital price transparency.
CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254
The explosion of telehealth over the last three years — driven by the COVID-19 outbreak and relaxed federal regulations for online care — prompted many doctors to adopt more robust telecommunication with their patients. Consultations that once happened in an office were converted to computer or smart phone visits. And health care systems invited patients to use new online portals to message their doctors with a question at any time, American Medical Association president Jack Resneck Jr. told The Associated Press.
“When people figured out this is cool and could improve care, you saw hospitals and practice groups saying to patients, welcome to your portal … you can ping your physician with questions if you want,” Resneck said. “We found ourselves as physicians getting dozens and dozens of these a day and not having time built in to do that work.”
The charges vary for each patient and hospital system, with messages costing as little as $3 for Medicare patients to as much $160 for the uninsured. In some cases, the final bill depends on how much time the doctor spends responding.
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Filed under: Breaking News, Career Development, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Healthcare Finance, Information Technology, LifeStyle | Tagged: Amanda Seitz, e-mail bills, electronic mail, email, MY CHART, NEW: Physician Electronic-Mail Bills, physician e-mail bills |
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