r/HealthInsurance • u/arwenthenoble • 14d ago

Claims/Providers Full office visit co-pay charged for MyChart message

I had a question about a temporary medication I was taking and sent a message via MyChart. The message was only regarding the medication (no other health questions were asked).

I received my EOB and was charged a full $50 co-pay like when I go in person for a visit or have a full video visit. When I looked online, I see in general messaging costs listed as much lower than a visit. Does this mean my insurance doesn’t differentiate a full visit from a brief question in a message? If I had known, I would’ve scheduled an online telehealth visit instead.

I’ve had a lot of medical costs this year and another random $50 stings. I will avoid using MyChart going forward.

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u/UnfoundedDime 14d ago

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4418542/

Here’s a study from 2015 that shows an average of 18.9 messages per 100 patients per month.

https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article/29/3/453/6458072

Patient messages have increased by 157% since 2020.

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u/Living-Target-9355 14d ago

The first one is data from 2001-2010, how much has changed in the functionality of the portal since then? I would guess nearly all of those questions were billing related because prior to the last 5-10 years you couldn’t access anything else when logging onto the portals.

The second link is to a survey with data from just before the pandemic to stats from July 2020, obviously skewed.

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u/UnfoundedDime 14d ago

I’m telling you that is the reality of it and worse. Why don’t you believe that?

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u/Living-Target-9355 13d ago

Because you’re using an argument from authority, which is a fallacy, and then cherry picking statistical studies from 15-25 years ago and others from during lockdowns. Of course there were a huge increase in number of messages.

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u/UnfoundedDime 13d ago

I’m happy to read about anything you have that shows evidence of the contrary. I am speaking from experience and the experience of all my colleagues.

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u/Living-Target-9355 13d ago

Now an anectdotal fallacy.

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u/UnfoundedDime 13d ago

I’ve spoken to a 100 family physicians with the same experience. What sample size do you require?