A growing number of health systems are starting to charge patients for asking for their physicians' advice through online patient portals, such as MyChart, with fees ranging from $10 to $98 for those without insurance.
These fees aren't being applied to all MyChart messages. Most are only incurring a fee if it takes a provider more than five minutes to answer, and many hospitals and health systems have said since enacting this, less than 1 percent of messages have been billed for.
Here is a look at how much four hospitals and health systems are charging for these messages:
- Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic said it plans to charge patients up to $50 for MyChart messages starting Aug. 18.
- Seattle-based UW Medicine's MyChart fees range in cost from $7 to $28 with Medicaid, $14 to $52 with Medicare and $27 to $98 for people with no insurance.
- Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health said MyChart fees have an average charge of $10.
- Cleveland Clinic said Medicare beneficiaries without a supplemental health plan would owe between $3 and $8 for MyChart. The system's maximum charge, affecting those with high deductibles on private insurance plans or without coverage, would be $33 to $50 for each exchange. While patients on Medicaid will recieve no charge as it covers MyCh
art messaging.