Why OHIP should cover telephone prescription renewals

From a Globe and Mail column, explaining why doctor's offices have to charge for telephone prescription renewal. OHIP doesn't cover telephone renewals, and the article explains why doctors would lose money if they didn't bill for them:

Something as simple as a prescription refill, he points out, takes about 15 minutes of physician and support staff time. The chart is retrieved, taken to the doctor’s office, where it must be read. A decision is made to renew and a note made. The prescription must faxed or phoned in, then the chart re-filed.

All these things need to be done if the patient comes into the office too. But, on top of this, support staff time is needed to book the appointment and check the patient's health card and exchange basic pleasantries when they arrive. The patient sits in the waiting room, thus being exposed to and becoming a vector for whatever contagions any other patients may have. The patient exchanges basic pleasantries with the doctor, is asked if there are any changes to their health, probably undergoes a basic examination since they're there anyway, and might have an unrelated but quick and simple question to ask while they're there. This all takes up more time and resources (and actual appointment slots), and because it involves presumably non-contagious patients going to a medical office (which is more likely to have a higher concentration of contagious patients than the general population) it slightly increases the possibility of contagion, which is a worse public health outcome and increases the burden on the health system. On top of that, the patient probably has to take time off work to come into the office, which costs the patient and/or the employer money and reduces the patient's economic productivity for that day.

In short, in-person renewal is a greater burden on the system than telephone renewal. The difference is small, but for each and every factor in-person is a greater burden than telephone. The only time in-person renewal is superior is when the doctor needs to examine the patient before writing or renewing the prescription. Therefore, OHIP should cover telephone (or even internet!) renewal in addition to in-person renewal, because it is better for society.