They insist that you provide one.
Thank you, this is very informative.
Though I have to argue that email is better than SMS, since SMS messages aren't encrypted at all.
Depending on local laws they may not due to, ironically enough, privacy and sensitive information laws. In fact beyond appointment scheduling I’ve yet to go to a practice that used email in any meaningful way. Even getting my health summary info to transfer between practices, I had to do a whole song and dance that essentially equates to “we’re sending you all this but if it gets lost, intercepted or misdirected, you agree that’s your problem because we told you email is bad”.
Why would email get lost, intercepted, or misdirected (compared to SMS)?
They usually need an address to verify who you are (Medicare, benefits, script confirmation, patient differentiation) and a number so they can contact you regarding follow up’s (again to come in, not to discuss meaningful information). Keep in mind, practices, hospitals, etc also deal with drug seekers and mentally unwell individuals.
In my experience, they don't seem to verify or identify a patient by address. Even if I give them a fake one, they accept it. If they ever need to send something later, they'll just confirm the address with you again. So I'd rather give them somewhere to send it, like a PO box, when they actually need it.
Beyond personal/sensitive information laws; they also want you to come in for any follow up/results because healthcare professionals like being paid for their time and up until Telehealth, couldn’t typical bill for phone calls. I get desiring privacy but given you’re going to be discussing and sharing personal health information with a clinician, this all seems a bit pointless tbh. Hence ol mate thinking this is a troll question I would guess.
It's about keeping unnecessary people from knowing unnecessary information when there's a perfectly good alternative like email.
When I worked for a family medical practice, many moons ago, if a patient refused to provide “demographic” information like this, we likely would just decline them as a patient, for liability reasons if nothing else.
In your experience, do they share a patient's address, phone number, and medical info with any third party? Or does it stay within that practice permanently?
Address and phone number is not essential. They can inform you with email
is this a troll post? am I being whooshed?
No