Payment for Telephone Care: From Policy to Practice: In Reply

As Dr Sterkel correctly points out, the issue of payment for telephone care as addressed in a recently published American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement1 is of great importance to pediatricians. Although pediatric practice entails a great deal of telephone care, physicians in many other medical specialties also experience high demands for telephone care and are concerned that these services, which entail medical decision-making, practice expense, and malpractice risk, are rarely paid. Over the past several years, there has been increasing support from the AAP and other specialty societies …