patient portal cost saving

by Dr. Micah Schoen MD 9 min read

The Cost of Patient Portal Development: Key Features …

21 hours ago Apr 29, 2016 · "If you can get a patient on a portal, they're 13 percent more likely to return. The value of the patient who returns is eight to 20 percent higher." The athenahealth report echoes this point, noting that patients, who return to a practice at least once generate more than $800 in ambulatory practice collections over three years, versus $147 for those who don't. >> Go To The Portal


Data showed that patients who regularly used the patient portal were between 2 and 4 percent less likely to be hospitalized, which can amount to thousands of patients for the typical mid-sized hospital, the researchers said. When a hospitalization can cost up to $30,000 per patient, this can result in astronomical cost savings.

Portal use reduces office visits and telephone encounters by 14-percent and 19-percent per year, respectively, over a three year period. Total cost savings are estimated to be $89.73 per patient for a three year period, net of operating expenses and patients and doctors opportunity costs.

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What are the benefits of patient portals for healthcare?

Apr 29, 2016 · "If you can get a patient on a portal, they're 13 percent more likely to return. The value of the patient who returns is eight to 20 percent higher." The athenahealth report echoes this point, noting that patients, who return to a practice at least once generate more than $800 in ambulatory practice collections over three years, versus $147 for those who don't.

What is the value added by patient portals to consumers?

May 28, 2021 · May 28 2021. The Cost of Patient Portal Development: Key Features and Tips For Patient Engagement. By Andrei Klubnikin, content management team lead, ITRex. Although the amount of US healthcare organizations that utilize patient portal software increased from 32% in 2014 to 90% in early 2019, less than a quarter of patients are willing to use the tools to …

How do patients sign up for a patient portal?

Sep 11, 2018 · The truth about the cost of implementing a patient portal is that, it really shouldn’t cost anything. The Cost of a Patient Portal. The truth about the cost of a patient portal is that it does not, and should not, have to cost a provider a dime. Each component of a physician’s office technology is related and should work together to make sure physicians are offering quality …

How does Valant’s Patient Portal improve patient care?

Nov 06, 2019 · Practices that increased portal adoption rates by 20 percentage points or more over 12 months saw a median increase in patient pay yield of nearly five percent. For practices that increased portal adoption by a smaller amount, median improvement in pay yield was about two percent. One likely reason is convenience.

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Do patient portals save money?

Limit Operating Costs and Save Money In addition, patient portals help to save money. Portals can save time and money by automating basic administrative tasks. Moreover, physician's time is critical but also limited. It's critical to provide the most efficient use of their time while at work.Jun 8, 2021

What is the advantage of a patient portal for the patient?

The Benefits of a Patient Portal You can access all of your personal health information from all of your providers in one place. If you have a team of providers, or see specialists regularly, they can all post results and reminders in a portal. Providers can see what other treatments and advice you are getting.Aug 13, 2020

How does health informatics reduce cost?

EHRs can reduce the amount of time providers spend doing paperwork. Administrative tasks, such as filling out forms and processing billing requests, represent a significant percentage of health care costs. EHRs can increase practice efficiencies by streamlining these tasks, significantly decreasing costs.Aug 13, 2018

What are the pros and cons of 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

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

What safeguards are included in patient portals?

Patient portals have privacy and security safeguards in place to protect your health information. To make sure that your private health information is safe from unauthorized access, patient portals are hosted on a secure connection and accessed via an encrypted, password-protected logon.

What is the cost of health information technology?

The Basics Several studies estimate the cost of purchasing and installing an electronic health record ( EHR ) ranges from $15,000 to $70,000 per provider.Nov 12, 2014

How does medical technology affect healthcare costs?

HOW MUCH DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY ADD TO HEALTH CARE COSTS? Researchers generally agree that medical technology has contributed to rising health care costs (1-3). Health insurance removes financial barriers to consumers, thus raising demand for technology and inducing providers to offer a more expensive mix of services.

What is the potential for cost savings by increasing the use of IT in health care?

Properly implemented and widely adopted, Health Information Technology would save money and significantly improve healthcare quality. Annual savings from efficiency alone could be $77 billion or more. Health and safety benefits could double the savings while reducing illness and prolonging life.

Can patient portals be hacked?

more frequent than data breaches in the financial services sector, and medical identity theft accounts for 43 percent of all identity theft.” How can you protect your patient portal? ... Many patient portals have surprisingly minimal security, with three main areas of vulnerability: They rely on password-protection only.

What are the disadvantages of accessing your health care online?

Con: Online Health Research Can Lead to Unnecessary Anxiety Your increased anxiety might worsen your pain and other symptoms. It's easy to assume the worst when you check your symptoms online, but don't panic if your symptoms align with a serious condition. Instead, seek appropriate medical care.Dec 5, 2017

Why do some patients fail to participate in the use of the patient portal?

The reason why most patients do not want to use their patient portal is because they see no value in it, they are just not interested. The portals do not properly incentivize the patient either intellectually (providing enough data to prove useful) or financially.

Why is patient portal important?

The patient portal is one of the most important tools that a provider needs to have a successful practice. It increases patient engagement like no other tool ever has and cultivates a better patient-provider relationship.

What are the challenges of office technology?

The challenges that many providers are facing include the quality of technology alongside the overall cost of implementation. Vendors of healthcare technology are taking advantage of providers and their need for these tools at their practice by over complicating and overcharging the process. Providers feel the pressure of spending a large amount of money, time, and energy on the implementation of tools such as electronic health records, billing technology and a patient portal.

Does a patient portal cost a dime?

The Cost of a Patient Portal. The truth about the cost of a patient portal is that it does not, and should not, have to cost a provider a dime. Each component of a physician’s office technology is related and should work together to make sure physicians are offering quality care, meeting regulatory requirements and practicing medicine ...

What is a patient portal?

A quality patient portal should have a messaging center that patients and providers can use to address health questions and concerns quickly and efficiently.

Why do people avoid going to the doctor's office?

In the past, patients have put off and avoided going to their doctor’s office because it can become very inconvenient, taking large amounts of time out of their day or just interrupting their lives in general.

What are the limitations of EHR?

The limitations of the EHR and the patient portal have presented challenges, such as the inability to send clinical summaries to patients via the portal. The practice can only move ahead with certain aspects of patient and family engagement as quickly as the system is upgraded.

When did Dover Family Physicians adopt EHR?

Dover Family Physicians adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system in 2008 with a goal of improving the quality of patient care and especially strengthening preventive care services. The practice has focused on ways to use the EHR to engage patients and their family members in their health and healthcare through a patient portal implementation. The practice, located in Dover, Delaware, has four physicians and two physician assistants, and provides primary care to more than 800 patients weekly.

How long does it take for a nurse to respond to a patient?

The practice established standards for response times of within 4 hours for more urgent questions to 2 days for prescription refills

How to get the most value from an EHR?

To get the most value from an EHR, practices will need to invest time in training and preparation. Some customization of the system will likely be needed based on how the practice functions and the individual work styles of the various providers.

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