health care policy and patient portal

What is a patient portal?

Protecting Your Private Health Information and Risks: The Patient Portal is designed to prevent unauthorized parties from being able to access or read information while in transmission by using encryption. Other security measures protect ... Patient Portal Policy and Procedures 2/26/15 Reviewed 11/1/18; Updated 8/6/19 .

What is the healow patient portal?

Patient Portal Policy and Procedures. We use Healow as our patient app and portal. The patient portal is a secure, confidential, and convenient way to communicate with CPC using the latest encryption technology. Use Healow to access your medical information from the comfort and privacy of your own home or office, schedule appointments, ask questions and more.

What are the aspects of health care policy that impact patients?

Jan 29, 2016 · Week 3: January 25-January 31 Impact of Healthcare Policy on Health From the government’s perspective, the central purpose of health policy is to enhance health or facilitate its pursuit (Longest, 2010). Healthcare policy contains several aspects. The aspect of healthcare policy that impacts patients and providers are the actions that the government takes, both …

What are the ethical issues with patient portals?

Sep 29, 2017 · A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits Discharge summaries Medications Immunizations Allergies Lab results Some patient portals …

How does patient portal improve patient care?

Better Patient-Physician Relationships Patient portals provide the ability for patients to have 24-hour access to connect with their provider by reviewing patient health information (PHI), asking and answering questions, and reviewing notes, making the patient-physician relationship closer than ever.Dec 8, 2017

What information can be accessed through a patient portal?

The features of patient portals may vary, but typically you can securely view and print portions of your medical record, including recent doctor visits, discharge summaries, medications, immunizations, allergies, and most lab results anytime and from anywhere you have Web access.

Why do patients not use patient portals?

For some people, they avoid using the portals altogether for reasons like security issues, low health literacy, or lack of internet. Even for those who do access their accounts, there are still other disadvantages of patient portals.Nov 11, 2021

What are the benefits and challenges of using patient portals?

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient Portals?Pro: Better communication with chronically ill patients.Con: Healthcare data security concerns.Pro: More complete and accurate patient information.Con: Difficult patient buy-in.Pro: Increased patient ownership of their own care.Feb 17, 2016

Why is patient portal important in healthcare?

A patient portal is a website for your personal health care. The online tool helps you to keep track of your health care provider visits, test results, billing, prescriptions, and so on. You can also e-mail your provider questions through the portal.Aug 13, 2020

What is the purpose of patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits.Sep 29, 2017

Do patients use patient portals?

FINDINGS. Nearly 40 percent of individuals nationwide accessed a patient portal in 2020 – this represents a 13 percentage point increase since 2014.Sep 21, 2021

Do patients like patient portals?

Eight studies reported that patients or their caregivers want more portal education, training, or support. Two studies found that their participants want human connection as they learn about the portal and how to use it, as well as when they encounter issues.Jan 25, 2021

What are the disadvantages of a patient portal?

One con to keep in mind with patient portals is that some patients may not have much experience with computers, preventing them from getting the most out of it. Another drawback is the potential for data breaches, so you'll need to work with a vendor that provides robust, secure EHR software.May 23, 2017

What is the purpose of health policy?

From the government’s perspective, the central purpose of health policy is to enhance health or facilitate its pursuit (Longest, 2010). Healthcare policy contains several aspects. The aspect of healthcare policy that impacts patients and providers are the actions that the government takes, both federally and state-wide, to influence healthcare service provisions, public health, and the well being of consumers (Kraft & Furlong, 2013). When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) executed on February 17, 2009, the initial impact was on providers, healthcare organizations and medicare advantage organizations to improve adoption and interoperability of technology. The incentive payments associated with this are part of a broader effort under the HITECH Act (HITECH) to accelerate the adoption of HITECH and utilization of qualified EHRs. As this has evolved, there has been an impact to patients as well.

What is the Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirement?

When the final rule on Meaningful Use Stage 2 was announced by CMS, some healthcare organizations and physicians expressed concern about the requirement that they ensure at least 5% of patients view, download or transmit their electronic health records (Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, 2016). However, the experience has been that both healthcare organizations and providers have been able to meet this requirement. Additionally, the literature has shown that patients will use the portals if they include features that they find valuable.

What is the impact of healthcare policy?

Impact of Healthcare Policy on Health. From the government’s perspective, the central purpose of health policy is to enhance health or facilitate its pursuit (Longest, 2010). Healthcare policy contains several aspects. The aspect of healthcare policy that impacts patients and providers are the actions that the government takes, ...

What is MHAV in Vanderbilt?

My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV) is an institutionally developed patient portal which launched in a limited fashion in 2003 before being more widely deployed throughout all clinical specialties starting in 2007 ( Figure 1 ). The VUMC informatics, legal and operational teams internally established policies and procedures to govern MHAV use by patients, proxies, and healthcare providers. The initial policies are described by Osborn et al. 29 MHAV and its associated EHR were certified for Meaningful Use stages 1 and 2. MHAV supports core functionality similar to those of other patient portals, including secure messaging, appointment scheduling, bill management, access to select laboratory results, and access to select EHR data. 29,32 There were incremental changes to usage logging and functionality throughout the duration of continuous use.

What is proxy access?

Proxy access is defined as an access class in which one individual receives access to another individual’s protected health information, communication tools, and functions in MHAV. In all cases, the proxy had to meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the table, even if the patient did not. Individuals could serve as proxies for competent adult patients, patients who were children or adolescents, and adult patients who met legal criteria for lacking the capacity to make medical decisions. VUMC policy distinguished two general categories of proxies: delegates and surrogates. The policy defined delegates as “an adult individual invited by a MHAV account holder to have access to that account holder’s MHAV account,” and stipulated that the account holder be a competent adult. For example, a competent adult may invite her spouse, adult friend, and adult child aged 18 or older to have delegate access to her account.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are web- and mobile-based programs that allow patients and their proxies remotely to interact with healthcare systems and their care providers. 1–3 These portals commonly allow users to view selected information from the electronic health record (EHR), review test results, message providers, schedule appointments, and pay medical bills. 4 A report by the Institute of Medicine specifies online access to personal health records, such as patient portals, as a promising technology to support patient engagement. 5 Functionality delivered through patient portals has been shown to improve chronic disease management, increase adherence to preventive care such as immunizations and screening, improve patient satisfaction, and better outcomes for some patients with chronic disease. 6–14

What is a well designed patient portal?

Well-designed patient portals, when combined with policies that promote use, offer significant opportunity for patients to engage in their healthcare. Without proper management, portals can suffer from decreased use and poor support from providers. In this work, we discuss the patient portal policies that govern account registration and management, shared access, and test result reporting at VUMC. We anticipate that other organizations can implement concepts from our policies to support the meaningful use of patient portals.

What is a surrogate account?

Surrogate accounts were proxy accounts held by competent adults that give access to MHAV as a stand in for individuals who did not meet eligibility criteria for having their own independent account. This included children, adolescents, and adults lacking the capacity for medical decision making.

What is patient portal?

The Patient Portal may include general information or education that should not be construed as specific medical advice or instruction. Nothing in the Patient Portal is intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered complete or relied on to suggest a course of treatment for a particular individual. You should always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition and you should never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking it because of general information or education you may find on the Patient Portal. When Unity Care NW posts information provided by a third party, Unity Care NW will make reasonable efforts to credit the source. Unity Care NW does not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the information posted, but believes all statements made to be reliable and accurate based upon representations made by the authors themselves. Unity Care NW accepts no fault or liability for any error or omission with respect to such statements.

Is Unity Care NW secure?

In our on-going commitment to improve services, Unity Care NW offers secure online access to some of your medical records and the ability to communicate with your provider and care team for patients 18 years and over or be the guarantor/guardian of a child between the ages of 0-12 years of age. Secure messaging can be a helpful tool, but has certain risks. By checking the box, you accept the risks and agree to follow the Terms of Use as described below.

Background and Significance

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

• Well-designed patient portals, when combined with policies that promote use, offer significant opportunity for patients to engage in their healthcare. Without proper management, portals can suffer from decreased use and poor support from providers. In this work, we discuss the patient portal policies that govern account registration and management,...

See more on academic.oup.com

Contributorship Statement