The health system will charge patients for MyChart if they are getting a medical diagnosis or treatment for new problems or complex issues, or if a provider has to spend “five minutes or more of their time and their medical expertise,” on a question, according to the publication.
These messages will be billed to an insurance carrier and be labeled as a “medical advice message,” with costs ranging from $0 for Medicaid patients to $45 for patients with commercial insurance.
The health system said the move was made as its providers have been receiving more than 2 million messages a year.
“By billing for medical advice messages, we are following other systems across the country in refocusing MyChart messages to be used as originally intended — for non-urgent, simple messages about existing problems,” URMC told the publication.
