patient portal costs

by Ms. Felicia Mueller MD 5 min read

The Cost of Implementing a Patient Portal - iSalus

34 hours ago 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 … >> Go To The Portal


What is the typical cost to build a patient portal app? A patient portal app usually costs $12,500 to build. However, the total cost can be as low as $5,000 or as high as $20,000.

Holmes estimates portal costs in the range of $30-$40 per provider per month, on average. Some vendors charge a fee per patient per month. Partly to compensate for this extra cost, some practices charge patients for viewing their own records on the portal.Apr 29, 2015

Full Answer

What is 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 …

What are the financial benefits of a healthcare portal?

Jan 05, 2022 · 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 disadvantages of a patient portal?

May 28, 2021 · Although patient portal software development costs can only be assessed on a case-by-case basis, a comprehensive solution which is merged into a hospital IT infrastructure and enhanced with all the features listed above would cost you anything between $100,000 and $140,000. Of this amount, $ 18-21 thousand would be spent on EHR integration.

How can portals improve patient engagement with their providers?

Add to Compare. Zentake. (14) $49.00. Per-Month. View Profile. Compare all software products on Capterra's Patient Portal Software Directory. Compare ( 1) Patient Portal Software products.

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What is the cost of implementing electronic medical records?

The study, funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, found that the average purchase and implementation cost of an EHR was $32,606 per FTE physician and maintenance costs were another $1,500 per physician per month.

Who has the best patient portal?

Epic Systems won the Best in KLAS patient portal with an overall score of 89.4 out of 100, which is more than 10 points higher than the average. The second-place winner, athenahealth, scored 79.9. Greenway Health came in third with a 77.9 and Cerner in fourth with a 77.6.Feb 8, 2022

What are the cons of a patient portal?

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

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 is the difference between EMR and EHR?

It's easy to remember the distinction between EMRs and EHRs, if you think about the term “medical” versus the term “health.” An EMR is a narrower view of a patient's medical history, while an EHR is a more comprehensive report of the patient's overall health.Feb 15, 2017

Is secure patient portal legit?

The Secure Patient Portal is a safe and easy way for your doctor or clinic to electronically share your healthcare information with you. After you make an account and log in, you will be able to see messages and download documents that have been sent to you.

Why do people 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..Sep 21, 2021

Why do patients not use patient portals?

The researchers found no demographic differences among nonusers who said that a technology hurdle, lack of internet access or no online medical record was the reason why they did not make use of a patient portal.May 14, 2019

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 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.

Are patient portals effective?

While the evidence is currently immature, patient portals have demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors, improving adherence to medications, and providing patient-provider communication, etc. High-quality studies are needed to fully understand, improve, and evaluate their impact.

Which of the following is a benefit of patient portals?

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

What Is a Patient Portal?

A patient portal is an online solution (web page or mobile app) that provides patients with 24/7 access to medical records, personal profiles, health billing management, and their healthcare service data/history.

How Patient Portals Can Help Optimize Expenses for Healthcare Providers

There are many advantages to be gained by introducing patient portals to your medical practice, each of which will result in considerable enhancement of your financial reporting.

Features of Patient Portal App Solutions

When you develop a patient portal from scratch (in contrast to using off-the-shelf software products), it’s an opportunity to define your own, very specific configuration of features and ideas to suit your specific business model at its best.

Patient Portal Software Development, Step by Step

How does one go about creating patient portal software? Let’s learn the major steps of the process:

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Patient Portal?

The cost of patient portal development depends upon the size of the team involved, the technologies used, and the time required for implementation.

In Conclusion

Patient portals bring your healthcare services closer to your patients.

How much does it cost to develop a patient portal?

Although patient portal software development costs can only be assessed on a case-by-case basis, a comprehensive solution which is merged into a hospital IT infrastructure and enhanced with all the features listed above would cost you anything between $100,000 and $140,000.

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 best technology stack for patient portal software?

According to Zakhar Bessarab, head of the web development unit at R-Style Lab, the optimum technology stack for the web components of patient portal software would list a flexible PHP framework (preferably Laravel or Symfony), MySQL/NoSQL database, Node.js WebSocket API supporting the live chat functionality, Go- or Python-based microframework enabling secure integration with an EHR solution and a JavaScript framework — preferrably Angular or React — for effective data visualization.

Why is patient portal adoption important?

Greater patient portal adoption correlates with hospital revenues and allows care providers automate tasks that were previously performed manually — i.e., patient consultations, gathering patient feedback, scheduling visits and sharing payment information. To foster physician-patient collaboration, however, it is necessary to promote your portal. The are a few steps you can take in this direction, including targeted email campaigns, loyalty programs and personal assistance with user profile configuration.

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 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 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.

Patient Portal features

Because patients are faced with a lengthy registration procedure, workflow at the front end of practice will suffer. It will minimize wait times and encourage fewer burdens on front desk staff by enabling patients to register electronically.

Want to Build Patient Portal for Your Clinic?

We build plenty of Healthcare Portals! Get the FREE estimation of your product idea.

Cost of the Patient Portals Development

There are three types of cost calculation based on the completeness of three types of specifications: task scope, User Stories, and Software Requirement Specification.

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Overview

Patient portals improve the way in which patients and health care providers interact. A product of meaningful use requirements, they were mandated as a way to provide patients with timely access to their health care. Specifically, patient portals give patients access to their health information to take a more active role.

Primary Benefits

No matter the type of platform you choose, your patient portal can provide your patients with secure online access to their medical details and increase their engagement with your practice. And not to mention that it does so while providing several benefits for health care providers as well. Some of these benefits include:

Notable Challenges

While many people have used a patient portal by now, they have mixed reviews at best. As you can see in the section above, there are plenty of benefits that patient portals provide. But unfortunately, their potential has yet to be fully harnessed.

Emerging Trends

If patient portals are a mixed bag, why should the patient portal receive greater consideration in the EHR, EMR and practice management selection processes? Because when you look at current industry trends, patient portals are well on their way to improving. Some of these trends include:

How to Use a Patient Portal

With patient portals, the first and foremost thing you will need is a computer and a working internet connection. Create a customized user’s account in the software to avail medical services on your own. Once you enter the patient portal, click on links and products sold by the provider and tap into a new experience.

Solution Evaluation

Now that you know what a patient portal is and given the potential and growing importance, how should you evaluate the best portal for your practice or facility? You can select a standalone patient portal that a third-party vendor commonly hosts through the cloud as a health care provider.

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that using a patient portal software can provide several benefits for your medical practice. After accounting for these nine considerations, you should be ready to start using a patient portal. The only decision left to make is which platform you’ll use.

How does a patient portal help?

A well-designed, properly implemented patient portal helps providers serve patient populations better and build a reputation as a business with heart. Streamlining administrative processes behind the scenes translates to better, faster service to patients. Mohan Giridharadas, founder and CEO of LeanTaaS, says that hospitals and other care providers “that are capitalizing on technology to improve their efficiency propel themselves forward both with service and reputation.” Portals should be seen as “engagement systems” designed to help patients actually own their health outcomes. In addition to offering the basics — scheduling and payment tools — patient portals should enable individuals to view their health history, monitor prescription requests and refills, view previous invoices and make payments, and access and complete intake forms before they even set foot in a clinic. These features can have a huge impact on quality of care and health outcomes for patients. The team at Politdok offers the following examples:

What do patients want from a portal?

Patients want a portal to offer at least three primary features: online appointment scheduling, access to their personal health information, and the option to view and pay their medical bills online, says Gaby Loria, team lead at Software Advice. Increasingly, patients also want to communicate through their portals via tools such as secure messaging and notifications. As an example, according to a 2018 study by Steve Alfons van den Bulck et al in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, of 433 surveyed patients, 93.7 percent stated that a patient portal or app that could notify them when they needed to take action to protect their health would significantly improve their quality of life and allow them to assume greater responsibility for their own healthcare. More than 80 percent of respondents also were interested in features that would allow them to track their symptoms over time, understand how symptoms were related to biological factors, and find information about expected treatment effects.

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 do we need a patient portal?

A patient portal can improve communication, streamline patient registration and scheduling, and allow practitioners to focus on patient care rather than administrative minutiae, says Amy DeMarco, marketing specialist at Henry Schein MicroMD. And the convenience offered to patients through well-constructed portals with access to patient records and efficient utilities for communication and transactions cannot be overestimated. At a time when consumers can do so much online — banking, research, shopping, getting a mortgage — it’s time for providers to get onboard with equally superior tools.

How does an online portal help patients?

Through robust portals that work both ways, patients can more efficiently support their own healthcare and feel more in control, and feel highly connected to their providers. As patients experience more benefits, their providers will too. Engagement of both groups will evolve into efficiencies and related cost savings, fewer visits, stronger patient-provider relationships, and improved outcomes.

How can web portals help with medication adherence?

Researchers at OpenNotes says poor adherence may lead to 125,000 deaths annually and cause of $100 billion in excess healthcare spending. Web portals can help curb this problem. “Encouraging patients to utilize a web portal to view their doctor’s notes is a cost-effective and efficient way to influence medication-taking behavior.”

Why do veterans have portals?

Department of Veterans Affairs began offering patient portals so that veterans could schedule their appointments more easily or to schedule their specialty care in a way that is more convenient and intuitive.

What percent of Summit Medical Group payments are online?

Summit Medical Group, a 500-physician group in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, receives 30 percent of its patient payments via online portals, according to the report. Middleton, for his part, says about 7 percent of payments come through the portal.

Why is secure email important for physicians?

Use of secure email allowed physicians respond to patients at their convenience and view "inquiries in the context of the full patient record, which they may not have at hand when patients call," according to the report. "All of these can improve provider productivity, which, in turn, can improve practice finances.".

How long does it take for a patient to return to the hospital after a portal account?

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.

Why is portal technology important?

So under value-based reimbursement, portal technology is beginning to look essential — for doctors to communicate with patients between office visits and for patients to track and understand their health data over time.

How does a digital mediator help a medical office?

Freeing the front office. If patients handle appointment requests, prescription refills, and health record requests online, a medical office's administrative call volume can quickly shrink. And when it comes to sensitive topics such as payments, a digital mediator can help: Some practices have found that secure messaging is more effective than phone calls for receiving and responding to billing questions.

What is the key to restraining costs and improving outcomes during the transition?

One key to restraining costs and improving outcomes during the transition? Patient engagement, which requires an active relationship between patient and provider, and patients' proactive management of their own health.

What is clinical technology?

Technology that supports clinical efficiency while keeping you ahead of industry change.

Why do providers like secure messages?

Controlling communications. Providers like being able to respond to secure messages when it's convenient — rather than immediately, when a patient happens to call. Another advantage: the ability to view a patient's questions and his medical record on the same screen.

Why do doctors send electronic bills?

One likely reason is convenience. Patients in these practices could receive electronic statements and, in most cases, pay their bills online.

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