Oncology News Central (ONC)Oncologists May Lose $7.7 Million from Patient Portal Messages

Streamlining Oncology Communication: A New Approach to Patient-Physician Messaging

A recent study presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting has shed light on the significant workload that secure patient-physician portal messages place on oncologists, prompting a call for more efficient triaging systems.

Key Points:

• Oncologists respond to an average of 19 secure patient-physician portal messages per day, according to a one-year analysis.
• The study was conducted at 21 Kaiser Permanente Northern California Oncology practices, where 41,272 patients initiated 334,053 individual secure message conversations with 132 oncology providers.
• The analysis revealed that only 27% of the conversations required oncologist-level review, with the remaining 73% potentially manageable by a nurse or medical assistant.
• Approximately 24% of all secure message conversations would have traditionally required a billable visit.
• The unseen value of this medical care provided through secure messaging was estimated to be over $11 million, including roughly $3.8 million in avoided out-of-pocket co-payment costs to patients and $7.7 million in missed billing codes.
• Lead author Dr. Brandon Anderson proposed a triaging system to delegate messages based on the level of service needed.
• The approach to secure messaging will likely need to be tailored to individual oncology practices’ needs and healthcare system goals.