- Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem started billing patients for some types of messages sent over its patient portal, such as those about new symptoms, medication adjustments, new prescriptions, flare-ups of chronic conditions and others that require extensive time reviewing a patient’s medical history.
- Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine said during a three-month period at the beginning of this year, it charged for fewer than 1 percent of messages on its MyChart portal.
- Chicago-based Lurie Children’s Hospital said it charged for about 300 MyChart encounters in the last year, a sliver of the nearly 300,000 messages it’s received, according to Ravi Patel, MD, vice president of digital health for Lurie.
- San Francisco-based UCSF Health bills for some MyChart encounters.
- Cleveland Clinic said it plans to begin charging for messages requiring clinicians to make clinical assessments, medical decisions or medical history reviews that would take more than five minutes.
- On its MyChart FAQ page, Renton, Wash.-based Providence shows that some messages through MyChart may qualify as a billable medical service.
- UW Medicine and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, both based in Seattle, also note that it is possible for a patient to incur charges for MyChart messages in some cases and that the patient will be notified in advance.
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