The cost of emailing your doc
-
Cleveland Clinic will begin to bill for Epic MyChart messages requiring a provider's clinical time and expertise beginning Nov. 17.
Patients have been able to send MyChart messages for free, and providers typically respond within three business days. But now the health system plans to bill for messages about medication changes, new symptoms, changes to long-term medical conditions, checkups on long-term conditions and requests to complete medical forms sent through MyChart, according to a news release from Cleveland Clinic.
Messages to schedule an appointment, get prescription refills and ask questions that could lead to an appointment will remain free. Patients can also give providers health updates without any extra charges.
Cleveland Clinic plans to bill for any interactions taking five or more minutes for providers to respond and will bill insurance companies. Medicare patients with secondary insurance will not have co-pays, but some Medicare beneficiaries may see a $3 to $8 fee.
Many privately insured patients will not have a copay, but if they have a deductible or their plan does not cover MyChart messaging, patients could be billed $33 to $50 per message.
My mother was a pediatrician. I have good memories of her spending hours (after office) on the phone, returning calls, fielding new calls, etc. Eventually she started charging for phone calls, until the gummint decided that her time should be given away for free.
She stopped taking after hours calls and simply told people to go to the ER.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
-
They can bill all they want. Getting paid for it is something else.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
-
Cleveland Clinic will begin to bill for Epic MyChart messages requiring a provider's clinical time and expertise beginning Nov. 17.
Patients have been able to send MyChart messages for free, and providers typically respond within three business days. But now the health system plans to bill for messages about medication changes, new symptoms, changes to long-term medical conditions, checkups on long-term conditions and requests to complete medical forms sent through MyChart, according to a news release from Cleveland Clinic.
Messages to schedule an appointment, get prescription refills and ask questions that could lead to an appointment will remain free. Patients can also give providers health updates without any extra charges.
Cleveland Clinic plans to bill for any interactions taking five or more minutes for providers to respond and will bill insurance companies. Medicare patients with secondary insurance will not have co-pays, but some Medicare beneficiaries may see a $3 to $8 fee.
Many privately insured patients will not have a copay, but if they have a deductible or their plan does not cover MyChart messaging, patients could be billed $33 to $50 per message.
My mother was a pediatrician. I have good memories of her spending hours (after office) on the phone, returning calls, fielding new calls, etc. Eventually she started charging for phone calls, until the gummint decided that her time should be given away for free.
She stopped taking after hours calls and simply told people to go to the ER.
@George-K said in The cost of emailing your doc:
Cleveland Clinic will begin to bill for Epic MyChart messages requiring a provider's clinical time and expertise beginning Nov. 17.
Sounds fair.
-
Many of today's docs do "piece work."
THey're in a clinic for x number of hours, and after that they're off the clock. If responding to messages occurs during the time they're on the clock, I fail to understand how this is justified (other than to increase revenue). However, if it's after hours, that's a whole different thing. See comment about my mother.
But...after hours messages don't get responded to until (hopefully) the next day. Because piecework.
Secondly, most messages get a response not from the doc, but from a NP or PA.
-
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/03/18/fact-sheet-celebrating-affordable-care-act.html
obamacareACA improved the health of all Americans, including women and families, kids, older adults, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ and communities of color.Everyone except white men
Sorry guys
-
I can see both sides of the issue. If it is a routine question easily and quickly answered, no charge. If it requires any sort of medical effort or research, then I could see a nominal charge. But the answer there could just be make an appointment.
For instance, MFR just got a prescription for a drug where she is contraindicated by another condition. There shouldn't be any charge for that question. It's a clarification of an order.
As a relatively frequent user of MyChart to communicate with my docs' offices, I really don't want to see a charge. And George is right - 95% of the time the SP or PA answers the question.
