Physician-patient e-mail gets the shaft here often. Maybe insurers are listening:
Under the plan, patients pay the same co-pay as they would for an office visit, and doctors get reimbursed about $35 for each patient e-mail they respond to.
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Don’t get too excited. Insurance companies will do this about as long as it saves them money. Insurance companies may figure an e-mail may substitute for an office visit. Unless you think you can shrink your office, lay off staff, and cut your costs, while simultaneously maintaining or increasing revenue, this does not make sense. I wonder what the “copay” for an e-mail is, maybe $35?!
For many people, e-mail is more about establishing a dialog. What happens when the initial e-mail is light on details and the doctor has to ask questions? This could go back and forth 3 or 4 times before the patient’s question is answered. Is each e-mail billed independently?
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