Digestive Health is pleased to offer personal online secure e-mail communication to selected established patients.
Dr. Gerstenberger and Dr. Saslow participate in this program at this time. Patients participating in this service must be residents of Colorado or New Mexico, and may access the service only while in one of those states.
Please keep in mind that this is a personal communication between you and your doctor, which means that your e-mail will not be routed through or otherwise managed by our staff. Only your doctor can retrieve your messages and only he or she will respond. Messages will be checked as frequently as possible (generally several times a day when your doctor is working), and he or she will try to respond to you within 24 hours.
During periods of high clinical demand when your doctor is on call for emergencies at Mercy Regional Medical Center, or when he or she is otherwise occupied in the endoscopy laboratory or by urgent clinical matters, he or she may not be able to respond as promptly. A response may be delayed if he or she is away from the office or on vacation. If you do not receive a response in a timely manner please contact our medical assistants by telephone at Digestive Health for advice.
Emergencies
Online consultation is not an emergency service. Please direct all emergency matters to our office telephone system or to the Mercy Regional Medical Center Emergency Department.
Fees
Online consultation is a fee-based service which may or may not be reimbursed by your insurer.
Please understand that responding to what may seem to be a simple query or request from you is a legal act of the practice of medicine on our part. A review of your medical record at Digestive Health, the Southwest Endoscopy Center and Mercy Medical Center is necessary prior to formulating a response, and a record of communication must be entered in your Digestive Health chart. We will, as medically appropriate, issue orders through our staff for additional laboratory, imaging (radiology) or endoscopy services on the basis of these communications. We may also issue prescriptions electronically. In some cases, we may need to speak with you personally by telephone or have you come into the office for a traditional visit.
In many cases, this online communication may be more expeditious and cost effective for you than a formal clinic visit.
Our 2010 fee for this service is:
$98
Online communication includes a message or series of messages to provide advice on a new problem, to initiate therapy that can be handled appropriately in an e-mail format, to go over test results, to coordinate medical management of a new problem, to review and evaluate new information and details, or to initiate a new plan of care.
Insurance Coverage
Ask your insurer if your policy provides coverage for this CPT® codes:
99444 - Online evaluation and management service provided by a physician to an established patient, guardian or health care provider not originating from a related E/M service provided within the previous 7 days, using the Internet or similar electronic communications network.
Medicare has designated this as a "noncovered" service, meaning that like many preventive services, it is not a benefit of the Medicare program. Medicare beneficiaries are allowed to purchase this service privately. We are happy to provide patients insured by private health plans with this service if it is not a covered benefit of their policy and if our agreement with their health plan does not preclude us from providing it.
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