Just curious if anyone has anything they are using that is web-based and designed for patient requests, etc.

we use RelayHealth. has its plusses and minuses, as do most things.

Wayne,
Could you elaborate on RelayHealth? What is the cost? Does it integrate with AC? If not, how do the get transactions into AC?

Toby, RelayHealth does not integrate w/ AC (even though they reportedly attempted to contact AC because they would like to). I don't believe AC integrates with any portal at this time.

I really cant comment on the cost since we have a couple of extras since we were "first movers" in the area and have some services for free that others have to pay for. Like e-prescribing. But expect $250 - $300/year for basics.

So to eRx, you end up prescribing both in AC and in Relay. We've been experimenting with eRx in the new AC. It avoids the double entry, but Relay does better tracking/saving of what happened to your eRx, tells you that it was sent, and sends an automatic email to the patient that the Rx was sent to PHARMACY XYZ.

Oh, eRx is not one of the basics. I'm not sure at this time what would be included in the basic price since we've had it for 3 years or so now and it has changed.

Just looking for an update...any news about AC integrating with an online patient portal? Reason being -- one of the probable requirements for the first year HITECH incentive payment is to "Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including diagnostic test results, problem list, medication lists, allergies, discharge summary, procedures), upon request".

Jon had told me recently that he believes all that will be required is a pdf burned to cd or emailed, which AC can apparently do.

Rich Ferguson
Neurology - Buffalo, NY

E-mail is not HIPAA compliant, unless AC is able generate a password-protected PDF to send by email. Which it cannot do in the present version.

As far as burning to a CD, I guess one could use a "print-to PDF" program to get the documents out of AC to an electronic form that the patient could access on a CD.

I'm looking forward to seeing what AC recommends to comply with HITECH "meaningful use" .

Couple of suggestions:
1. According to HHS.gov, unencrypted email can be HIPAA complaint for some uses (probably don't want to send a positive HIV result this way). HHS.gov PDF on HIPAA Safeguards at pg. 3

2. Most PDF editing software allows you to add password protection to an existing pdf. (E.g. Adobe Standard ($450), PDF Converter Professional ($50-90)). Print it to a pdf, password protect it, then email it. Voila! Encrypted email!

Thanks for the info. The $50 option sounds do-able. I got Adobe Acrobat Standard with my scanner, and its a real dog, slow as mud and always downloading updates that do nothing.

An alternative program that I love to use is the FREE PDF reDirect, which allows you to print anything to PDF format and set a password encryption to the file. I use this to combine progress notes and imported items into one large password-encrypted file when creating a disk of a patient's medical records.

Remember, UpDox has a patient portal, which works reasonably well (see discussions in a separate thread.) There are lots of ways secure e-mail COULD work... we could tell all of our patients to get PGP for instance... but the trick is how to do it smoothly, without taking more than a few seconds per interaction, and without requiring any technical dexterity on the part of our patients. As I noted elsewhere, I think UpDox comes pretty close, but it is still twitchy enough to be an issue for my staff who have to provide tech support. I am still hopeful it settles down.