When hospitals charge for email consultations

Many doctors have to spend additional, uncompensated hours beyond their working time to answer patient queries via email. — Filepic

Meg Bakewell, who has cancer and cancer-related heart disease, sometimes emails her primary care physician, oncologist and cardiologist, asking them for medical advice when she experiences urgent symptoms such as pain or shortness of breath.

But she was a little surprised when, for the first time, she got a bill – a US$13 (RM61.20) co-pay – for an email consultation she had with her primary care doctor at University of Michigan Health in Illinois, United States.