Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 33)

While there is no single deﬁnition of what constitutes an e-visit, the term generally describes an online patient consultation — as opposed to, say, an e-mailed reﬁll request. “What I’d deﬁne as an e-visit is a fairly structured encounter that’s serving as an alternative to an ofﬁce visit when appropriate, with an established patient,” says Kleaveland. Few insurers currently reimburse for e-visits. Those that do pay for very structured encounters also frequently require providers to complete detailed forms. Such payers also often require patient copays for e-visits, Kleaveland says. In general, insurers do not pay for e-mails that serve to replace telephone calls. In Crow’s practice, patients can use e-mail to schedule appointments, request prescription reﬁlls, ask generic questions, and access portions of their medical records online. Occasionally, Crow says he receives an e-mail about a problem he’s not able to address electronically, such as a patient reporting a rash. In such cases, he asks the patient to make an ofﬁce appointment. Baucom says she uses e-mail to replace phone visits with patients whose conditions require weekly follow-ups — she wasn’t being reimbursed for those encounters anyway. “Now I’m doing those more efficiently over the Internet,” she says. “It’s all about customer service around here.” In general, secure e-mail Web site services charge a monthly subscription fee. Renaissance Pediatrics paid a one-time startup fee of $1,500 per physician and now pays $75 per physician per month for continuing service. Cost wasn’t an issue, says Brady. “In my opinion, the bigger barriers are deciding how you’re going to use [e-mail] in the context of your practice,” says Kleaveland. “It should make your practice more efﬁcient and make it easier for your patients to communicate with you.” BETTER MEDICINE? providing access points for patients to interact with our ofﬁce,” says Crow. Baucom believes that physicianpatient e-mail communication gives her practice a competitive edge. “We want to practice high-quality medicine, and we want to do anything we can do that’s going to make people go out of here smiling,” she says. It seems to be working: “Patient satisfaction is through the roof.” • Abigail Green is a freelance writer in Baltimore, Md. She can be reached via editor@physicianspractice.com. This article originally appeared in the April 2007 issue of Physicians Practice. READ MORE ABOUT IT! Learn more about the feasibility of communicating electronically with your patients at PhysiciansPractice.com •Investigate how to use e-mail to generate more revenue by typing “Tap Into Your Inbox” in our Search Articles box. •Further evaluate whether online patient communication is for you by typing “E-mailing Patients” in our Search Articles box. •Type “Patient E-mail” in our Search Articles box for more advice on keeping your electronic communications secure. Improving communication with her patients is of utmost concern to Baucom. “Because of the nature of my practice, I have a lot of patients with chronic problems, mental health issues, and other behavioral learning issues,” she explains. National guidelines stipulate that physicians who prescribe psychiatric drugs to children should follow them closely. E-mail allows Baucom to do this. Before tapping into e-mail to communicate with her patients, Baucom found it difﬁcult to get them to return to the ofﬁce for weekly visits. “So I use [e-mail] when I’m starting kids on antidepressants or when I start kids on new ADD medicine. I say to the parents, ‘You need to e-mail me once a week for the next four weeks, and this is what I want to know.’” Patient satisfaction is certainly a big reason physicians cite for embracing e-mail. A 2005 study in The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice reported that satisfaction among both patients and physicians improved in a group that used e-mail to communicate versus another group that did not. The study concluded that e-mail has the potential to improve the doctorpatient relationship by cultivating better communication. “We always want to be on the frontier of delivering better service and IN SUMMARY While physician-patient e-mail correspondence has been a hot topic for years, few physicians use the technology to communicate with their patients, citing concerns about added workload, privacy, and cost. Here’s what you need to know about electronic patient communication: • Only about one in four physicians uses e-mail to communicate with patients about clinical issues, even though 74 percent of Americans are e-mail users. Typical e-mail services are insecure and unreliable. Exchanging electronic communications with patients via a secure Web site is a better option. Insurers generally do not pay for e-mails that replace phone calls, although some are paying for speciﬁc electronic encounters that take the place of ofﬁce visits. In general, secure e-mail service providers charge a one-time setup fee and an affordable monthly subscription fee. E-mail allows physicians to quickly and easily monitor patients who are starting new medications without the hassle of weekly ofﬁce visits. Physician-patient e-mail has been proven in numerous studies to boost patient satisfaction. • • • • • WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM TECHNOLOGY GUIDE | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 33 http://PhysiciansPractice.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 TG Cover Story: Protect Your Practice and Sleep Better Operations: Paperless? Not Quite The Internet: You've Got Mail...Or Do You? Patient Relations: Attention Grabbers The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs Lessons Learned: 'My EMR Nightmare...And Why I'd Do It Again' Scheduling: No More No-Shows The Marketplace: Who's Got Your Back IT Enhancement: Time, at Last, for an Upgrade? Online: 'Yup, I'm a Junkie. And Proud of It.' In the Office: New Technologies in the Workplace: Blessing or Curse? Web Surfing: If You Build It...

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

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