patient portal cost savings

by Melody Casper 9 min read

The Cost of Implementing a Patient Portal - iSalus

16 hours ago  · This will contribute massively to additional development costs. Summary: A fairly complex patient portal software development project (including web development, cloud-based integration, and other features) can cost about $40-60K per project, with an average project duration of three to six months. >> 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 is the value added by patient portals to consumers?

 · This will contribute massively to additional development costs. Summary: A fairly complex patient portal software development project (including web development, cloud-based integration, and other features) can cost about $40-60K per project, with an average project duration of three to six months.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

 · 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 …

Do hospitals teach patients how to log in to their portals?

 · The cost of integrating an educational materials section into a patient portal may range from $5,000 to $ 15,000. Last but not least, there are expenses associated with the development of a custom content management system which supports various operational and service tasks, including content moderation and alert messaging; the functionality would …

How many Americans use patient portals?

 · "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.

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Do patient portals save money?

Experts say patient portals can offer financial benefits that improve collections, reduce staff workload and better engage patients. Solutions like the CareCloud patient portal are saving practice managers big bucks.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

What are the benefits of patient portals?Patient portals are efficient. ... Patient portals improve communication. ... They store health information in one place. ... Patient portals satisfy meaningful use standards. ... They improve data accuracy. ... Patient portals make refilling prescriptions easy. ... They're available whenever you need them.More items...•

What are the cons of a patient portal?

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.

How can electronic health records reduce costs?

Electronic Health Records Reduce 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.

Why do patients not use patient portals?

About seven in 10 individuals cited their preference to speak with their health care provider directly as a reason for not using their patient portal within the past year. About one-quarter of individuals who did not view their patient portal within the past year reported concerns about privacy and security..

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.

Can patient portals be hacked?

Unfortunately, what makes your patient portal valuable for patients is exactly what makes it attractive to cybercriminals. It's a one-stop shop for entire health records, and identity thieves can make a fast buck from stealing this data and selling it on.

What are the advantages of patient portals to the patient and to the healthcare facility quizlet?

The patient portal supports two-way communication, which allows the patient to work with physicians between patient visits, request appointments, and receive reminders. These reminders can be for appointments, need for follow-up, and more.

What are the disadvantages of personal health records?

Are there drawbacks to PHRs? Building a complete health record takes some time. You have to collect and enter all your health information. Only a minority of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies can send information electronically to a PHR that isn't part of a patient portal.

How EHR improves billing and collection process?

The major benefit of using EHR systems is, it automatically boosts your revenue and it performs,Eliminate lost paper superbills.Increases first-time acceptance rates for claims.Enhance comprehensiveness.Electronically generate super bills and then bill insurance carriers.Reduces rejection rates of insurance claims.More items...•

Are Emrs cost effective?

Conclusions. Although the adoption of an EMR resulted in overall growth in administrative costs, it is cost-effective since the cumulative NPV was positive.

How does nursing informatics reduce costs?

Nursing informatics can save hospitals money because it facilitates the flow of information. Moreover, nursing informatics cuts down on waste and boosts efficiency by preventing repeat procedures and reducing the occurrence of medical and medication errors.

What is patient portal?

In a nutshell, a patient portal is the user-facing component of an electronic health record (EHR) solution, which is intended to simplify patients’ access to medical data — i. e., physician notes, laboratory results, billing information, — and drive patient participation.

What is the educational section of a patient portal?

Designed to replace printed supplementary materials promoting healthy habits and effective chronic condition management, the educational section of a patient portal allows physicians to develop personalized outreach campaigns and unlock the value of technology-assisted population health management.

What is the importance of integration with electronic health records?

Often regarded as the cornerstone of patient portal development, the integration with electronic health records ensures online access to medical information, including after-visit summaries, laboratory test results, medical images and clinical notes. Optionally, healthcare providers may take a step towards a deeper integration with hospital software and allow patients to self-manage the information regarding medication intake, allergies and immunization and upload files, which would be automatically added to their personal health records.

What is eBilling payment?

Leveraged through secure third-party payment gateways, such as Stripe or PayPal, the eBilling feature enables care providers to seek reimbursements in a transparent way, split expenses between insurance companies and individuals and allow patients to pay bills online.

What is a live chat in a hospital?

Besides real-time communication with hospital team and other specialists involved in care delivery, a live chat with file sharing capabilities can facilitate remote diagnosis and consultations for patients with both minor issues and chronic conditions.

What is appointment scheduling?

An appointment scheduler should feature a built-in notification system to alert patients on upcoming meetings via SMS and email and provide the options to fill out pre-visit forms and request referrals. The desirable functionality of an appointment scheduling module also includes the ability to set consultations with more than one physician using a convenient drop-down menu.

Is risk based reimbursement coming?

Department of Health and Human Services has announced that an estimated 30 percent of Medicare payments will now be tied to alternative payment models that reward quality of care over quantity of services. The government aims to link 50 percent of payments to value-based care models by the end of 2018.

How much has the number of high deductibles increased since 2010?

Since 2010, the number of Americans with high-deductible health plans has increased by 75 percent. That means today's patients are taking on a far greater share of medical costs. For providers, collecting those payments in time can be a challenge.

Why don't portals engage patients?

Currently, many portals don’t engage patients because they aren’t designed with the patient’s interests or needs in mind. Rather, they’re based on systems created for providers that have been reconfigured to allow certain types of limited patient access. Often, the result is information that is fragmented, non-intuitive, or difficult to understand, particularly for patients with lower health or computer literacy, according to a 2017 study by Jessica L. Baldwin and her team of fellow researchers in Healthcare. This creates a significant problem when it comes to bill payment tools, says Tom Furr, CEO of PatientPay. For instance, the bills displayed in the patient portal may not match the paper invoices patients are used to receiving, thus causing confusion and incorrect bill payment.

Why is automation important?

Automation is needed to replace inefficient, time-consuming tasks. For example, portals can take over such manual processes such as medical record sharing, staff locating, report creation, and faxing reports to other caregivers. These efficiencies save providers time and money.

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Collecting Payments, Faster

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Since 2010, the number of Americans with high-deductible health plans has increased by 75 percent. That means today's patients are taking on a far greater share of medical costs. For providers, collecting those payments in time can be a challenge. The athenahealth study found a positive correlation between greater p
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Building Patient Loyalty

  • Portals could also play a role in retaining patients over time. The study found that after an initial visit to a primary care practice, 80 percent of patients with portal accounts returned for a second visit within 18 months. In comparison, patients without portal accounts returned only 67 percent of the time. And portal adopters are more likely to have ongoing relationships with their provider…
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Unburdening The Staff

  • It's often assumed that digital mandates create extra work. But practices with portal adoption rates above 60 percent report that portals can actually reduce workloads for providers and staff. Here's how: 1. Saving time. A portal's secure messaging system can capture many patient questions that were formerly handled by phone. At one high-adopting practice, a triage system a…
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Improving Health Outcomes

  • Risk-based reimbursement is coming. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that an estimated 30 percent of Medicare payments will now be tied to alternative payment models that reward quality of care over quantity of services. The government aims to link 50 percent of payments to value-based care modelsby the end of 2018. One key to restrainin…
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