Meaningful Use of Patient Portals

Posted Monday, August 20, 2012 by Heidi W.

Posted by Heidi Wurpel

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) based reimbursement for certified Electronic Health Record (EHR)/Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology on "Meaningful Use".  Both Medicare and Medicaid make incentive payments under HITECH.  However, "meaningful use" standards become increasingly stringent each year.

Hospitals and medical practices who have received reimbursements simply for having an EHR/EMR that includes a patient portal (even if it was turned off) will not only need to turn on their patient portals to continue receiving reimbursement but will also need to start showing that a percentage of their employee population is actively using the patient portal. 

The success of meeting this requirement is likely to hinge on the strength of the medical provider's patient communications.  On surveys, patients almost always express desire for telemedicine, e-mail communications with their provider, electronic prescription refill requests, and 24-hour self-scheduling abilities.  However, getting patients to break old habits and utilize these new patient portal technologies will take more than just flipping a switch.  How do you do this?

  • Medical practices and hospitals should start identifying patient e-mail addresses - and each patient's interest level in utilizing technology - now. A database will ease the challenge of targeting patients for communications.
  • Start talking to your patients about the specifics of your portal. Whether this is a formal survey conducted by an evaluator such as Crescendo, or simply ad hoc conversations in the waiting room, knowing the aspects of your portal that patients find most exciting will allow you to speak in patient-friendly terms and lead with the portals strengths.
  • Write a patient portal campaign into your marketing plans for next year and begin thinking through the channels that you can utilize to increase awareness among your patients.

    • Conducting leg-work today for the patient portal requirements of tomorrow will help increase your chances of receiving reimbursements and effectively showing meaningful use.

    blog comments powered by Disqus