NY Times Examines Role of E-Mail in Physician Practices

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New York Times Examines Role of E-Mail in Physician Practices

Medical News Today 03 Mar 2005

Many insurance companies in an attempt to improve efficiency and reduce costs

are beginning to cover e-mail consultations between physicians and patients,

just as they do for office visits, the... New York Times reports. Physicians say

that they can use e-mail to advise patients on less-severe concerns and avoid

appointments and phone calls, and patients can obtain diagnostic test results

and request prescription renewals through e-mail. Further, initial research has

shown that e-mail improves physician productivity, decreases overhead costs and

improves access to care. Health information technology companies such as

RelayHealth, Epic and IDX, make secure software allowing patients' medical

records and e-mail communication to be accessible only to their physicians.

Participating physicians also follow certain guidelines, such as addressing only

appropriate issues and responding only to patients they have treated in the

office. Various insurers, including BlueCross BlueShield plans in California,

Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Tennessee, have

begun paying physicians $24 to $30, including patient copayments, for e-mail

consultations. In addition, Kaiser Permanente also will be starting an e-mail

consultation program in Colorado and Hawaii. Handler, research director

at the technology consulting firm the Gartner Group, said, " All consumer surveys

in the last several years show patients want to be able to communicate through

e-mail or messaging. The problem was, reimbursements for the doctors weren't

there. " Physicians and health IT experts say that increased use of e-mail

consultation could lead to more widespread adoption of electronic health

information systems, the Times reports (Freudenheim, New York Times, 3/2).

Survey

In related news, many people say they are interested in e-mail consultations

with their physicians, but most are not willing to pay for it, according to a

Wall Street Journal Online/ Interactive survey. According to the survey,

80% of the public say they would like to send medical questions to their doctors

via e-mail, and 69% say they would like to receive test results. However, two in

three people say they are not willing to pay for e-mail consultations, the

survey says. In addition, many adults believe electronic medical records could

improve the " quality of health, reduce costs and significantly decrease the

frequency of medical errors, " according to the survey. Sixty-seven percent of

people say they still have concerns that electronic medical records will make it

" more difficult to secure patients' privacy " (Wall Street Journal, 3/2).

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