Health update

The next time you’re thinking about emailing your physician to ask them a question, maybe you should check to see how much money you’ve got in your pocket. A new report from the Journal of the American Medical Association  says that many health systems are now billing for emails sent to doctors in an effort to increase revenue and compensate clinicians for responding to patient-initiated messages. This began in 2017 but grew 50% during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other healthcare payers expanded their reimbursement structure for telemedicine. Now, seven years later, the practice has grown seven-fold and includes charges for any “e-visit” message that requires at least 5 minutes of clinician time for any sort of medical decision-making over any 7-day period.

Washington Post - An unprecedented flu strain is attacking hundreds of animal species. A potent strain of H5N1 avian influenza has struck some 320 bird and mammal species, leading to mass deaths of animals on farms and in the wild. There’s a risk the virus could evolve the ability to be transmitted to humans. Its reach exploded around 2021 when it began to spread among migrating birds. 

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