Dr Kaufman charging for emails!?

[snowyriver]

Dr Kaufman is now charging $30 to $150 dollars per email. And I just got another notice that they want to keep my credit card on file for "efficiency." I am shocked and highly disturbed. We already pay almost $600 an hour. Am I the only one upset about this? Are the other top docs doing this? Is Dr Kogelnik doing this? This is really starting to feel horrible....

 

[Rachel Riggs]

I am a patient of Dr. Kaufman's and I totally get it.

Answering emails can eat up an entire day - how is he supposed to generate income and pay for his overhead?

They are very smart to ask for a credit card consent, many hours can be spent chasing down payments, and payment at time of service is not too much to ask. It's efficient and good business. The more organized the operation, the more sick patients they can accommodate!

I am very aware of how much time is spent reviewing my chart and test results, calling in prescriptions etc.

The real OUTRAGE here is that insurance companies don't pay for our care... but we gotta remember not to attack the good guys who are trying to help us!! xx

 

[Diwi9]

@snowyriver - I know we are always getting tapped and treating this illness is expensive. I think CCD gave a pretty good justification and explanation for why they need to charge for email time. If it's a quick email to clarify your plan, then they won't charge. But, if it is to dialogue about something and requires research, they will...fair enough and on-par with most other professionals who bill hourly. My only suggestion is to keep a running list of questions you have for your doctor for the next time you have an appointment, so it can be done more efficiently. While they run a small practice, they have staff and office rental space...both of which are very expensive in the Bay Area. As @Rachel Riggs said, if insurance covered our treatment, it wouldn't be so expensive. FWIW - some doctors don't even make themselves available over email.

 

[*GG*]

I am a patient of Dr. Kaufman's and I totally get it.

Answering emails can eat up an entire day - how is he supposed to generate income and pay for his overhead?

They are very smart to ask for a credit card consent, many hours can be spent chasing down payments, and payment at time of service is not too much to ask. It's efficient and good business. The more organized the operation, the more sick patients they can accommodate!

I am very aware of how much time is spent reviewing my chart and test results, calling in prescriptions etc.

The real OUTRAGE here is that insurance companies don't pay for our care... but we gotta remember not to attack the good guys who are trying to help us!! xx

I agree with all of that except for the last sentence. My Drs office does not charge, but they probably will in the fuutre. They recently changed their system to be more secure, so I need to log into their site now, no messages to my personal email. Which is probably a good thing since so many email services are not really secure and we have discussed lots of medical things for the last 10 years I have been seeing this specialsist for my ME/CFS and Fibro.

GG

 

[snowyriver]

@Rachel Riggs - I have no problem paying at the time of service which is what I've always done. But STORING our credit card information creates an unnecessary risk for us. I've already had to change my credit card 2x this past year bc of security breaches. I'm not looking for additional liabilities. And how are they securing our data? Will they tell us when there is a breach? Will they pay for fraud protection services when there is a breach? Doubt it. Could you imagine if every doctor I went to wanted to store my credit card information....the enormous liability that would be. And I don't see how it is any more efficient than simply taking the credit card at the time of service. I'm guessing that they are asking for this now, so they can just run credit cards at will for email communication.

Anyway, I'm really wondering if charging for emails is now the new standard? Are any other doctors doing this? And what is the status of Dr Kogelnik's practice these days? Is he still seeing patients? Is he also charging for emails? I'm hoping someone might chime in on this.... Thanks.

 

[Sushi]

Anyway, I'm really wondering if charging for emails is now the new standard? Are any other doctors doing this?

Many doctors do this. They often distinguish between an email that can be answered simply (like with a yes or no--no charge), or one that requires them to spend more time on it.

 

[Gingergrrl]

But STORING our credit card information creates an unnecessary risk for us.

It's not really different than having Amazon or any on-line service store your credit card info. Whenever I do a phone consult with Dr. K, they already have my card on file where they could see only the last four digits. I'd get an e-mail invoice, call them within the next few days and Ellen would say, "Should we charge the card ending in 1234"? (not the real #) and I would say yes.

So with their recent request to store the card to charge for future phone consults, I told them I was not comfortable sending my full credit card info via an e-mail, or even in Elation Passport (the patient portal). She said all I had to do was scan the form with my signature giving them permission to use my card ending in "1234" (for future visits or phone consults) and that is all that would go into my file. No one would see the full card info so it's not actually different than it was before.

I am responsible and pay for phone consults the same day (or within a few days) but in theory, if they had someone do a visit or consult and not pay, they would lose a lot of money. To me this is smart business practice, but also flexible since I modified the info that would be visible in my chart or the portal and they were fine with this.

Are any other doctors doing this?

I've had many doctors do this including the mold specialist that I consulted with in 2015. My Endocrinologist now charges $600 per year just to join his practice (which I did not have to do since I have been his patient for 5 yrs and am grandfathered in). And he is just my Endo who treats my thyroid! Dr. K does not charge anything to join his practice and I can't imagine that he ever will.

And what is the status of Dr Kogelnik's practice these days?

I have no idea but my guess is that he is mostly focused on research. I do not personally know any OMI patients who stayed with Dr. Kogelnik (vs. transferring to Center for Complex Diseases with Dr. Kaufman or Dr. Chheda) but I assume that many did and I just do not know them.