• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Pilot project to pay physicians for e-mail "visits"

Technology firms are taking further steps to get physicians more involved in using technology.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. April 9, 2001.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

In another sign that employers are making it a priority to get doctors to use information technology, six self-insured Silicon Valley companies are promising to pay physicians a fee to cover e-mail contact with patients.

The six companies say they plan to launch a pilot project April 15 in which they will pay doctors $20 per clinical e-mail "visit" involving nonurgent health matters. The employers, calling themselves the Silicon Valley Employers Forum, hope the use of information technology can lower costs and improve care.

The companies are Cisco Systems Inc., Oracle Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Cadence Design Systems Inc. and NEC Electronics, plus one company that was not identified. About 100 doctors will be involved in the pilot; they are expected to recruit about 2,000 employees to participate.

The pilot is scheduled to last six to eight months, said Giovanni Colella, MD, a psychiatrist and CEO of Healinx Corp., Alameda, Calif., which is providing the technology. It's limited to employees whose health plans are administered by Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealthGroup Inc., based in Minnetonka, Minn.

When employees of those companies want to ask doctors questions that are clinical in nature, they access a secure part of Healinx's site and fill out a questionnaire. Healinx's system analyzes the problem, recommends treatment guidelines and forwards the information to the patient's physician to review, Dr. Colella said.

Despite the popularity of e-mail among doctors and patients, they have been slow to connect with each other -- partly due to privacy concerns, as well as to a lack of reimbursement. First Health Group Corp., a PPO administrator based in Downers Grove, Ill., offers cash incentives to doctors who have e-mail consultations with chronically ill patients. [...]