Kacie Lewis, 29 years old, is one of those who can manage their health electronically. Her Aetna policy had a high deductible until recently. This was due to her role as a product manger at a healthcare company. She said that she was billed $32 per email thread since late 2021. These emails were to be seeking treatment for eczema, psoriasis and yeast infections from Novant Health in Charlotte.
“Time is money,” Ms. Lewis said. “And to be able to submit something super simple and communicate with your doctor over email is much better than driving 20 minutes one way, 20 minutes back the other way and potentially sitting in the waiting room.”
In a paper published on Jan. 6 in JAMADr. Holmgren reported with his colleagues that U.C.S.F. had made a significant impact on their practice. Health’s email billing was launched in November 2021. Since then, there has been a slight decrease in the number patients contacting providers. The researchers suggested that might have been the result of patients’ reluctance to be charged a fee.
U.C.S.F. was established in the first year. The study found that U.C.S.F. charged for 13,000 message messages. That’s 1.5 percent of 900,000. There were more than three million messages. (Other hospitals claimed they charged no more than 2 percent for threads. From about $20 from Medicare and Medicaid and $75 from commercial insurers per bill, the email fees generated $470,000, compared with the system’s $5.6 billion in 2021 revenues.
“This will hopefully be revenue-neutral,” Dr. Holmgren said. “We are not intending to make this a profitable enterprise.”
Critics say that billing only for a small percentage of emails won’t reduce physician burnout. Hospitals must also make it a priority to answer patient questions during work hours and reward them for their efforts. U.C.S.F. has begun giving “productivity points,” a metric used for compensation, for doctors’ correspondence.
Jack Resneck Jr. is the president of American Medical Association. He stated that he supports email insurance as a way for health care models and systems to adapt to changing times.
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