New CPT code for online consultation: patients willing to pay for online medical interactions.(Practice Trends)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- There are stumbling blocks to increasing online interactions with patients, but payment is not one of them, Dr. Allen Wenner said at a meeting sponsored by the Medical Records Institute.

Payment "is really not the issue," said Dr. Wenner, a family physician in Columbia, S.C., and vice president of clinical applications design for Prime Time Medical Software. "People will pay the money."

The Web site for Dr. Wenner's practice (www.drwenner.com) allows patients to set up their appointments online, request prescription refills, fill out a previsit questionnaire, view test results online, and participate in an online visit. He charges about $50 for a virtual visit, which takes the place of an in-office visit.

Although the cost of online services or virtual visits is rarely reimbursed by insurance companies, Dr. Wenner said patients are more than willing to pay for the chance to skip a lengthy and inconvenient trip to the doctor's office.

Several pilot projects are evaluating this approach, said Dr. John W. Bachman, a consultant in family medicine and professor of primary care at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn.

So far, most of the projects have found that reimbursement of about $20-$25 per virtual visit is appropriate, he said. It's estimated that the average primary care physician can handle about 12 online consultations an hour, Dr. Bachman said.

And now, there's a CPT code for e-mail ...