Nebraska Medicine will start billing patients for messaging providers

Starting Sept. 12, patients may be charged for some inquiries on Nebraska Medicine's messaging system. Jan, who is affected by this decision, suffers from a chronic illness and sees practitioners frequently at Nebraska Medicine. She uses the messaging system a lot because she can't always get in to see her doctor. When she got the email, informing her of the change, she said she was kind of disappointed. "I know doctors are busy, but I don't know." While most messaging will remain free at Nebraska Medicine, patients like Jan may be billed for responses that need medical expertise and require more than five minutes of a provider's time.