Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Only one in four doctors (24 percent) use e-mail to communicate with patients about their health issues and medication, up from one in five doctors in 2000-2001, according to a new report from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

This measly growth in patient e-communication pales in comparison to the rapid growth in use of information technology for prescriptions and accessing patient notes, HSC says.

Four out of five patients would like to communicate with their doctors via e-mail, according to public opinion surveys noted by HSC. Meanwhile, a new federal commission, the American Health Information Community, has targeted secure online communication between doctors and patients as a -breakthrough- technology that should grow quickly--especially for patients with chronic conditions.