Medical group calls for reimbursement for e-mail. (Communicating with Patients).

SAN DIEGO -- The American College of Physicians is calling on Medicare and private insurers to reimburse physicians for certain types of e-mail consultations.

Some private insurers already have begun to pay their physicians for e-mail consultations, but Medicare seems reluctant to pursue this option for physicians.

The major barrier to physicians using e-mail consultations is the lack of reimbursement for this service by insurers, the ACP concluded in a new policy paper, "The Changing Face of Ambulatory Medicine: Reimbursing Physicians for Computer-Based Care."

ACP officials expounded on the technology's benefits during a press briefing at the college's annual meeting.

"There is a wide spectrum of nonurgent patient conditions that could be effectively managed without the time and expense of an office visit, through a carefully structured e-mail consult system focused on established patients," said Dr. Sara Walker, immediate past president of the ACP.

This would avoid wasted hours playing telephone tag, improve documentation of physician-patient interaction, and increase physician time when face-to-face visits are necessary, Dr. Walker said.

An estimated 20% of the 830 million office visits per year could be eliminated by online communications between clinicians and patients, the ACP paper said, citing statistics from "HealthCast 2010," a report released in 1999 by PricewaterhouseCoopers.