Very good points in this thread on physicians and email, little or no reimbursement. BD
Patients who consult with their physicians via e-mail are less likely to visit their physician and less likely to call their doctor’s office, according to data from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, the Portland Business Journal reports.
You have to understand that I am a very tech-savvy physician. We have been on EMR for over 10 years. I am at home today, but just spent an hour logged in at work answering questions and finishing documentation. I give talks around the country about the adoption of technology in medical practice and have personally succeeded where many have failed: increasing income while improving quality using an EMR in a small-office setting. Yet we do not use e-mail with our patients.
Margins are already very tight. Doctors are not much use to their patients if they have to close their offices.
There are ways around this problem, such as having physicians charge for e-visits or charge a global fee for access via e-mail. But Medicare won’t allow physicians to charge above and beyond what they pay for, so to implement this a physician needs to either exclude Medicare patients, or stop seeing them altogether.
The main issue in this case is not physicians’ slowness in accepting technology, nor is it simple greed. For there to be real change in this area, there must be a change in the way physicians are reimbursed. Until that happens, expect the low adoptions rate to persist.
Musings of a Distractible Mind » Blog Archive » News Flash: Free care makes no money
Hat Tip: Kevin, MD
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