June/July 2001

Few MDs Process Claims Over the Internet

New York - While the percentage of medical doctors using computers and the Internet has steadily increased in recent years, few have yet to embrace the web for administrative functions, according to a new study by the American Medical Association.

Only 8% of U.S. doctors polled by the AMA last June to September say they use the web for health insurance claims processing. Physicians' least frequent reasons for using the web also include obtaining or transferring medical records (17%) and obtaining insurance or managed-care data (13%). Only one in four doctors use the web to send and receive e-mails to patients. In addition, 26% of physician web users say they currently have a web site, about the same proportion as in 1999.

The survey is based on interviews with 1,001 physicians and is the AMA's third analysis of physicians' online behavior.

The findings are in sync with other recent surveys suggesting doctors are beginning to integrate computers into their practices and see online administrative functions as essential to the future of their practices, but remain skeptical about online interactions with patients.

Among physician web users, Medline was most frequently mentioned (20%) as one of the sites they've visited in the past three months, followed by WebMD (10%), Medscape (8%) and the AMA web site (7%). Overall, 75% of doctors surveyed say they are computer users, up from 42% in 1997, the first year of the survey. The percentage of web users also rose sharply, to 70% of doctors in 2000 from 20% in 1997.

Source: Reuters Health

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