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Mar 10, 2008
Medicare has about 7,500 specific tasks it pays doctors to perform. E-mail is not among them. Ditto for most Blue Cross plans, all the employer plans and most commercial insurers. But wait…..are Aetna and CIGNA really entering the 21st century? (DMN story)
Reimbursable e-mail is not like garden-variety e-mail, however. It has to have a CPT code, a diagnosis, a record of time spent - in short, all the same forms, activities, categories and even payment rates as 20th century, face-to-face consultations. It's sort of like constructing a state of the art operating room so that shamans can practice bloodletting with leeches.
4 Responses to “Aetna/CIGNA Discover the Internet”
March 10th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
It’s about time, I use only fax and e-mail with my physician( eliminates secretary and nurse), I’m sure the clinic does not seek reimbursement! My past, RN, CRNA, Hospital Administrator, Geriatric Nurse and now retired. Phil
March 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I want to follow this from the cost/benefit analysis after one year. Must be less expensive to converse with an MD who knows me prior to seeing an ER doc who does not! Sounds like a new “covered service” in the making!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Okay. So how should email consultations be compensated?
March 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Reply to Pam: Obviously you need to read the vignettes in our state health care reform handbook
at http://www.ncpa.org/email/State_HC_Reform_Book_conclusion.pdf