Study: Online Contact with Physicians Increases Office Visits

Online Access To Docs Increases Office Visits, Study Finds by Eric Whitney, Colorado Public Radio. November 21, 2012.

In light of requirements from the Department of Health and Human Services that doctors offer online access to their patients, important questions arise.  A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association addresses one of these questions.  Online access to doctors seems to increase, not decrease, the number of office visits from patients. Another key question involves compensation for email contacts.  At present the health care system does not compensate doctors for time replying to emails.