"Can I Just Email My Doctor?", Your Patient is Asking the Receptionist

90% of adult patients would like to communicate with their physician via email. Unfortunately, only 20% of physicians use email to reply to patients' questions.

There are two major problems:

-How to make sure that the communication is secure and HIPAA-compliant?
-How to bill for it?

To put it simply: liability and reimbursement.

Online Security

Medem (a for-profit network founded by AMA) has developed a physician-patient email system which is claimed to be secure.

Reimbursement

Blue Cross/Blue Shield is one of the few insurers that pay for patient-to-doctor emails. They call them "online visits" and the reimbursement is $ 20.

Read more in Prescription for doctors: E-mail in USA Today.

Reference:
Prescription for doctors: E-mail in USA Today

Online "visits": Insurers pay but docs don't play. Medical Economics, Sep 1, 2006.
Medical practices using email with patients see their voicemail volume drop - email replaces inefficient phone tag. "We in health care can no longer sit back and say, "I don't do email with patients" - a doctor in WSJ, 2012.

Image source: sxc.hu