Poll after poll shows that patients want on online relationship with doctors, but that doctors aren’t obliging. The latest poll from Harris Interactive is no exception. The survey, sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, reports that more than 80% of California primary care physicians rarely communicate with patients online. Doctors in large groups are more adverse to a cyber relationship with patients than their solo colleagues even though they are more likely to have an IT infrastructure that would make it possible. The reason why physicians have failed to initiate Internet medicine could be related to compensation issues. In the fee for service world, emailing a patient is normally uncompensated work that crowds out compensated work. Those physicians who are paid on a capitation basis and oriented toward comprehensive as opposed to episodic patient care have less cause to see patient email as a financial disincentive. Interestingly, the survey found that 74 percent of patients would like the ability to email their doctors.
To read the entire article published in Medical Economics, please click on the following link:
http://blogs.memag.com/doctors-patient-email/
For more information on physician contract negotiation and physician practice management matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.
