patient portal and meaningful use 2 health care policy

by Mr. Erick Ebert V 7 min read

How to Use a Patient Portal to Meet Meaningful Use …

29 hours ago Nov 10, 2014 · In order to qualify for CMS Meaningful Use Stage 2 incentives, eligible providers need to ensure that at least 5% of their patients use the provider’s “patient portal.” This means that patients must send an online message to their clinician, or patients need to view, download or transmit health information via the portal. Patient portals are among the emerging … >> Go To The Portal


Health care policies such as Stage 2 Meaningful Use are likely contributing to increased patient portal utilization across all patients and helping to attenuate disparities in utilization between subgroups of patients. Conclusion

Full Answer

Do meaningful use policies increase portal utilization across subgroups?

Nov 10, 2014 · In order to qualify for CMS Meaningful Use Stage 2 incentives, eligible providers need to ensure that at least 5% of their patients use the provider’s “patient portal.” This means that patients must send an online message to their clinician, or patients need to view, download or transmit health information via the portal. Patient portals are among the emerging …

What is Stage 2 meaningful use for patient portals?

Jul 03, 2014 · To meet Stage 2 as an eligible professional (EP), you must use a patient portal to meet the following Core Objectives: Core Objective: Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit. Measure: Clinical summaries provided to patients or patient-authorized representatives within one business day for more than 50 percent of office visits.

Are government incentives for meaningful use effective for new EHR users?

The stage 2 MU regulations target both patient viewing of their health record and e-mail communication, hypothesizing that these will engage patients in preventive and chronic illness care. 14 It was found that, once enrolled, patients of both specialists and PCPs viewed their health record, but only PCPs received e-mails at rates substantially above thresholds. The study team …

What are the benefits of portals for healthcare providers?

Many physicians are adopting patient portals in response to governmental incentives for meaningful use (MU), but the stage 2 requirements for portal use may be particularly challenging for newer electronic health record (EHR) users. This study examined enrollment, use based on MU requirements, and s …

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What is a patient portal in healthcare?

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.Sep 29, 2017

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

Does a patient portal satisfy meaningful use?

Satisfaction with patient portal Respondents generally reported satisfaction with the functioning of the portal (Appendix Figure 1). More than 96% of survey respondents were either very satisfied (66.5%) or satisfied (30.0%) with the patient portal overall (3% were dissatisfied and 1.5% were very dissatisfied).Feb 21, 2014

How do patient portals improve patient care?

Background. Engaging patients in the delivery of health care has the potential to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Patient portals may enhance patient engagement by enabling patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-provider communication.

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

How can the patient portal affect patient satisfaction?

Our model shows that patient portal use can influence patient satisfaction through the mediating effects of gratification, health self-awareness, and health perception. ... Therefore, by promoting effective patient portal use and fostering patient perceptions, health care organizations can improve patient satisfaction.

How many meaningful use criteria does the patient portal meet quizlet?

What are the 4 meaningful use criteria that that patient portal meets?

Do patient portals improve outcomes?

Patient portal interventions lead to improvements in a wide range of psychobehavioral outcomes, such as health knowledge, self-efficacy, decision making, medication adherence, and preventive service use.

What are the disadvantages of patient portals?

Even though they should improve communication, there are also disadvantages to patient portals....Table of ContentsGetting Patients to Opt-In.Security Concerns.User Confusion.Alienation and Health Disparities.Extra Work for the Provider.Conclusion.Nov 11, 2021

How do patient portals contribute to patient centered care?

Further, portals help providers educate their patients and prepare them for future care encounters. When patients have access to their health data, they are better informed, and have the potential to generate deep and meaningful conversations regarding patient wellness during doctor's appointments.May 13, 2016

What are some advantages to a healthcare facilities use of the patient portal function?

The truth is, there are a lot of benefits to using a patient portal for providers.Better Patient Communication. ... Streamline Patient Registration and Administrative Tasks. ... Greater Focus on Patient Care. ... Better Patient-Physician Relationships. ... Improve Clinical Outcomes. ... Optimize Medical Office Workflow.Dec 8, 2017

What is the goal of hie?

Electronic health information exchange (HIE) allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient's vital medical information electronically—improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care.Jul 24, 2020

Meaningful Use Stage 2 and Patient Portals

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Patient Portals: A Path to Increased Productivity and Happier Patients

Physician offices barely began to pass Stage 1 of Meaningful Use requirements before it was time to gear up for Stage 2 Meaningful Use, where a key proposed requirement is to increase the electronic information shared with patients. Maryland Physician spoke with two primary care physicians who have experienced patient portals first hand.

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 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 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 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 are the key issues that concern providers?

One of the key issues that concerns providers is the difficulty of increasing patient engagement and the use of patient portals. Having patients be more aware and have more control over their own health is necessary to ensure better patient outcomes and quality of care.

What are the steps that providers should take to improve patient engagement?

Some key actions that providers should take to improve patient engagement is to implement proactive and engaging features as well as promote and expedite portal use.

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Background and Significance

  • 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 …
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Methods

  • Study site
    Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a private, nonprofit, and academic healthcare center located in Middle Tennessee. VUMC includes the 758-bed Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH) and the 267-bed Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (MCJCHV). VUH rece…
  • My Health at 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 establi…
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Results

  • Policy on patient access and registration
    During the period covered by this review, My Health at Vanderbilt was made available to all competent adults age 18 and older, regardless of whether they had an established relationship with a Vanderbilt site (ie, whether they had a medical record number). With permission from a pa…
  • Proxy and nonpatient access
    The access policy also allowed a number of proxy access classes to account for diverse ways that family members or other caregivers support individuals receiving health care. Proxy access is defined as an access class in which one individual receives access to another individual’s protec…
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Discussion

  • Patients are increasingly interested in accessing their personal health data through the patient portal.4,24,34 There remains a need to understand how portal policies can enable use and promote engagement.13 Previous studies have found evidence supporting patient portal use and improved chronic disease management, improved patient satisfaction, and improved outcomes…
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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, shared access, and test resul…
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Contributorship Statement

  • BS, JW, and TR conceived the study idea and design. BS, JC, BC, GS, and TR retrieved and described relevant policy information. BS and JW conducted quantitative data analysis. All authors participated in writing and reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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