U.S. doctors start charging for email consultations
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — To compensate for the time answering queries outside working hours, physicians are now charging fees for responding to emails and messages from patients.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced a new billing code in 2020, allowing doctors to charge for answering patient-initiated emails that require at least five minutes of their time.
Doctors can bill up to once a week per patient for the total time spent, excluding emails related to scheduled appointments, prescription refills, or follow-ups within seven days of a visit.
A recent study of insured patients by the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) saw that doctors charge, on average, $39 per email. Meanwhile, patients with out-of-network benefits pay about $25 per email.
“We see physicians working two to four hours every evening on their patient emails after their shift is over, and that’s not sustainable,” said CT Lin, the chief medical information officer at the University of Colorado Health, in an interview with Time.
Physicians are hesitant to charge such fees as it may offend patients, especially those with chronic conditions. However, they also see it as a necessary step to draw the line between work and their personal space.
They have also resorted to this measure due to declining physician reimbursement rates, which have not kept up with inflation over the past two decades.
