Why You Should Utilize Patient Portals in 2020

Almost 92% of practices across the country are already utilizing some kind of patient portal. This tool has completely changed how patients interact with their physicians’ in-between visits while also empowering them to take action in their health. Not every patient portal is the same.

The Benefits:

1) Increase Patient Engagement

Before the patient portal, it was incredibly difficult for patients to truly play an active role in their personal care. It was difficult to access their personal health history, communicate directly with their provider, or to view their test results. Access to this tool has provided a window for patients to view and understand their medical information while also getting involved in other ways. Here patients can communicate more effectively with their providers through secure messaging. Patients can also request appointments and refills on their prescriptions. Through access to information and communication, patients can more easily engage with their providers and reflect higher patient loyalty and satisfaction as a result.

2) Increases Patient Payments

The patient portal also helps providers increase the number of payments they receive from their patients. A quality patient portal will help your patients both understand their medical bills as well as help them make payments if they need to. With the rise in patient responsibility balances, providers are increasingly depending on payments from patients in order to grow their revenue and sustain their practice. The patient portal your practice chooses to implement should enable your patients to process credit card payments online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The more available your payment options are, the more likely your patients are to make a payment.

3)    Follow-up/Prescription Adherence

Getting any of your patients to stick to a follow-up plan can be tricky. Patients fail to adhere to their treatment plans for a variety of reasons. Whether they are forgetting their appointments, failing to pick up their prescriptions, or failing to complete annual testing/labs, the patient portal offers a solution. The patient portal helps your patients adhere to follow-up care by sending them appointment reminders in one of three ways. They can receive a reminder in the form of a text, email, or phone call depending on their needs. These reminders help your patients keep track of their appointments, labs, and imaging that then lead them to positive outcomes. The patient portal also helps patients keep track of their medications and send them to the most convenient pharmacy so that they never forget to pick them up.

What Makes A Quality Patient Portal?

1) Online Bill Management

Patients can process payments, view their statements, and update address and billing information from their patient portal.

2) Comprehensive Scheduling

Help patients submit appointment requests while reducing phone calls to your practice and reminding patients of upcoming appointments.

3) Digital Patient Intake

Gather the most updated patient health information and insurance while also reducing wait times and transcription errors.

4) Real-Time Test Results

Help patients view their test results as soon as they come in, giving them peace of mind and improved accountability regarding their next steps.

5) Communication Center

Improve the relationship between patients and their physicians by giving them a secure place to communicate and ask questions.

6) Interoperability

Access health history and test results from other providers without having to jump through a series of hoops.

A quality patient portal will equip your patients and your practice with the tools they need to improve patient engagement, patient loyalty, and patient satisfaction while also having a lasting impact on your revenue cycle and patient payments. To learn more about utilizing a patient portal that can help you practice, click here.